Advance care planning
Advance care planning at Austin Health
Austin Health advance care planning specialists work within the Patient Safety and Clinical Excellence Unit at Austin Health providing organisational support and expertise to enable clinicians to apply patients’ advance care plans and assist in the development of advance care planning documents.
Advance care planning at Northern Health
Advance care planning at Northern Health helps patients to plan ahead for their future healthcare, in case they are ever too sick to speak for themselves. It can provide patients and families with further information and assistance to complete an Advance Care Directive and/or appoint a Medical Treatment Decision Maker.
Advance care planning at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac)
Advance care planning webpage at Peter Mac provides information on advance care planning and how to appoint someone to act as your Medical Treatment Decision Maker (MTDM).
Advance care planning at Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s advance care planning provides information for patients and health professionals. It includes advance care planning resources for patients to help them understand the process of advance care planning as well as information available in languages other than English.
Advance care planning at Werribee Mercy Hospital
Werribee Mercy Hospital advance care planning page provides information, links and resources on advance care planning.
Advance care planning at Western Health
Western Health’s advance care planning page provides information, links and resources on advance care planning.
Western Health advance care planning
Advance Care Planning Australia
Advance care planning is the process of planning for your future health care. It relates to health care you would or would not like to receive if you were to become seriously ill or injured and are unable to communicate your preferences or make decisions. This often relates to the care you receive at the end of your life. Click on the link to the Advance Care Planning Australia website for more useful information and tools.
Planning and decisions about dying and death (Better Health Channel website)
The Victorian Government’s Better Health Channel website includes a section on planning and decisions about dying and death, planning where you want to die; financial considerations for end of life; and coming to terms with dying. Click here for link.
Advance care planning as part of My Health Record of the Australian Digital Health Agency
The Australian Government’s My Health Record is a personalised online summary of individuals health information, which people can choose to share with doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers. You can upload your advance care plan into your ‘My Health Record’. An advance care planning document details your future medical care preferences. It provides guidance to your family, close friends and healthcare providers if you can no longer speak for yourself or make your own decisions. Click here for more information.
Dying to Talk Discussion Starter
Palliative Care Australia’s (PCA) Discussion Starter series and Card packs have been developed to reach into communities to normalise early conversations about the end-of-life, rather than waiting until more time-critical or medical-focused discussions need to occur. The resources have been developed to help Australians work out what’s right for them if they were to become very sick or at the end of their lives. Click here for link.
MyValues website
MyValues is a set of specially constructed statements designed to help people identify, consider and communicate their wishes about the medical treatment they would want in the later stages of life. The tool is free to use and generates a summary statement for people to keep and use. Click here for link.
Palliative Care Victoria
The Palliative Care Victoria website has a range of information relevant to advance care planning for individuals, families and health professionals.
Click here for more information.
Palliative Care Australia
The Palliative Care Australia website provides a range of information about advance care planning and links to information relevant in each state and territory. Click here to access the website.
Victorian Department of Health
The advance care planning page of the Victorian Government Department of Health includes information about the legal framework for advance care planning in Victoria and a link to the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act (2016). The Act includes updated provisions regarding statutory recognition of advance care directives.
Office of the Public Advocate
The Victorian Office of the Public Advocate is empowered by law to promote and safeguard the rights and interests of people with disability. The OPA website includes information and forms about planning for the future and medical decision making including powers of attorney, medical consent and refusal of treatment.
Death Over Dinner Down Under
Death Over Dinner (DOD) was originally designed in the USA by Michael Hebb and Angel Grant (see link to TED talk) to encourage people to have conversations about end of life and end of life care at the kitchen table rather than in the Intensive Care Unit. DOD aims to educate people on the value of making decisions about their wishes, and expressing them to their loved ones, by inspiring a series of uplifting and interactive dinners to transform the seemingly difficult conversation about death into an intimate, shared experience. The DOD website provides a range of tools, reading and support materials, as well as tips to get the conversation started. An Australian and New Zealand version of DOD has been established under the name Death Over Dinner Down Under. Click here for link.
The Groundswell Project
The mission of the Groundswell Project is to develop innovative arts and health programs that create cultural change about death and dying, while championing others to do the same. Click here for link.
Birth and death – these are something we will all have to cope with. But when it comes to the latter, we seem reluctant to think about, talk about, and plan for it. This is your chance to find out more.
Check out the Dying2Learn Hub here.