What is tō tātou reo advance care planning?

None of us have a crystal ball and we do not know what is ahead. The ideal time to start having a conversation about what matters to you is when your health is stable, and you are feeling well. Your end of life maybe years ahead but what an awesome gift/Taonga to start thinking and talking to your loved ones about what matters to you now.

Your GP, Nurse Practitioner or Practice Nurse can support you to get started. If you are seeing a specialist at the Hospital or have been referred to Hospice, they can help too and answer any of your questions.  In fact, any registered health professional should be able to support you have an ACP conversation.

Hospice Waikato have a list of trained ACP Community Champions who can visit you at home, FREE OF CHARGE, to support you.

If you wish to use this service or require further information, please contact:

Mary Robertson, ACP Lead/Clinical Nurse Specialist [email protected] or phone 07 859 1260.

Your Advance Care Plan is a living document, so you can change it at any time. Just contact your GP, Nurse Practitioner, Practice Nurse attending health proffesional to update your plan – remember to share this change with your Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) and/or the people you and have listed to advocate for you if you were unable to speak up for yourself.

 It’s always important to review your Advance Care Plan at least once a year and especially if there is a change to your health status.

It is important for all the health professionals involved in your health care to be able to view your Advance Care Plan – very important if you are seriously injured or unwell and unable to speak up for yourself. Your GP can scan your Advance Care Plan and upload it electronically into your health record at Waikato Hospital and if appropriate share it also with Waikato Hospice or an Age Care Facility.

An enduring power of attorney is the appointment by you of a person – an attorney - to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make or communicate those decisions yourself.  It is a formal document which is prepared by and signed in the presence of a lawyer or an authorised officer of the Public Trust.

There are two types of EPOA:

• Property: This covers your money and assets. You may have more than one attorney for this.
• Personal care and welfare: This covers your health, accommodation and associated care decisions. A doctor must first certify that you are not capable of making decisions for yourself before the person you have appointed power of attorney can decide.  You may have only one attorney for this EPOA.

The person you appoint as power of attorney may be a close member of your family/whānau, a friend or anyone else you choose. It is important this person knows your wishes, feelings, and values to help them make the best decisions on your behalf if they need to. It is a good idea to include this person in discussions about your advance care plan, particularly those relating to future treatment options.

There are some decisions that by law a person with an enduring power of attorney cannot make, such as refusing consent to standard medical treatment intended to save that person's life or to prevent serious damage to their health.

A person with an enduring power of attorney cannot make an advance care plan or advance directive for the person who has appointed them.

For more information, please go to http://www.officeforseniors.govt.nz/our-work/promoting-enduring-power-of-attorney/how-to-create-an-enduring-power-of-attorney/

An advance directive (sometimes called a 'living will’) is a way of choosing beforehand specific treatments you would or would not want in different circumstances if you were no longer able to speak for yourself. 

If you can’t speak for yourself, it is the responsibility of your healthcare team to apply your advance care plan and any advance directive. 

When applying your advance directive, the healthcare team must be confident that you:

• fully understood what you were asking for at the time of writing your advance directive
• were free from influence or duress from someone else, and
• meant this to apply to the current situation

Ideally, you should discuss an advance directive with your doctor so that you have good information prior to making your decision. This will also give any doctor treating you confidence to follow your advance directive in the future, knowing you made a fully informed decision.

An advance directive doesn't have to be prepared by a lawyer, written in a particular way or even written down at all. It can be verbal. However, it must meet certain criteria to legally bind your health care team to withhold medical care. 

An advance directive may be included within an advance care plan.

Further information and sample advance directive form(s) can be accessed here - http://www.hdc.org.nz/your-rights/about-the-code/advance-directives-enduring-powers-of-attorney/

National summary of My Advanced Care Plan  - This is an alternative document to the local Waikato version that a person may prefer to use.  This can be downloaded from the national tō tātou reo advance care planning site - http://myacp.org.nz/your-plan