Advance care planning

When a loved one has a serious illness, it’s important that close family members, friends and healthcare providers clearly understand the loved one’s values and wishes. Someone who is dying often wants to help make decisions about what happens to them during the rest of their life and after their death. This may include decisions about:

• having cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and intensive care unit (ICU) care, surgery, tube feeding, being admitted to the hospital, and other interventions
• where they want to die
• having or not having a funeral service, being buried or cremated, donating organs, tissues, or their body for research
  
• music, readings, and other rituals for a service

The following resources may help you talk about and understand someone’s preferences for end-of-life care:

• Conversations Matter – A Guide to Making Health Care Decisions is a booklet that helps someone think about their values, beliefs, and wishes related to illness, healthcare, dying, and death.
• Goals of Care Designation Order Form gives information to healthcare providers about a person’s wishes for healthcare. This form needs to be signed by a doctor and should stay in the home. To learn more, go to Advance Care Planning: Goals of Care Designations.
• A Personal Directive is a legal document that lets others know a person’s choices for healthcare and other personal decisions. It also says who will give orders for care if they can’t speak for themselves.

Resources

You can find out more about palliative and end-of-life care:

• Conversations Ma​tter
• by talking to your loved one’s home care nurse or community care coordinator
• for 24/7 nurse advice and general health information, call Health Link at 811.