Advance care planning is important for all adults at all stages of life and health and is an important part of routine, high-quality healthcare.
Advance care planning involves making decisions about the healthcare you would want to receive if you were facing a medical crisis in the future and were unable to communicate your own treatment preferences. These are your decisions to make based on your personal values and preferences.
The goal of advance healthcare planning is to help ensure that individuals receive medical care that is consistent with their values, goals, and preferences. The nature of the advance care planning conversation may vary depending on whether the person is healthy, has mild to moderate chronic illness, or has an advanced life-limiting condition and is thought likely to die within the next one to two years.
Advance healthcare planning includes:
- Thinking about your values, wishes, and beliefs regarding quality of life.
- Learning about possible future health conditions, the types of life-sustaining treatments that are available, and what these treatments can and cannot do.
- Choosing a healthcare representative. A healthcare representative is someone who is willing and able to speak for you and make healthcare decisions for you if you become unable to communicate or make decisions for yourself in the future.
- Talking with your healthcare representative, loved ones, and healthcare providers about the types of treatment you would or would not want should you be faced with a medical crisis and be unable to make your own decisions (e.g., head injury, stroke, coma, etc.).
- Completing advance directives, which put into writing whom you choose to be your healthcare representative and the types of treatment you would or would not want should you be faced with a medical crisis and be unable to make your own decisions (e.g., head injury, stroke, coma, etc.).
