When to do ACP

Anyone can do Advance Care Planning. Some key groups that Advance Care Planning is useful for are:

  • Aged or older people who are frail
  • People of any age with chronic progressive and life-limiting conditions
  • People approaching end of life
  • People with multiple health conditions
  • People with early cognitive impairment
  • People who are regularly admitted to hospital

It is also a good idea to discuss Advance Care Planning if you are having medical or surgical treatment. Sometimes these may result in temporary loss of capacity.

A good time to do Advance Care Planning is when your health is stable.

Think about writing an Advance Care Directive if:

  1. you have firm preferences about future medical treatment
  2. you have no-one, or no-one suitable, that you could appoint as a Medical Treatment Decision Maker
  3. you have preferences for your health care that are different from what you think your family would want for you.