Advance care planning

Helping you plan your future healthcare.

Two healthcare professionals review documents together in a hospital corridor.

Where to find this service

Advance care planning allows you to make decisions now about the healthcare you'd want to receive if you were to become seriously ill and unable to communicate your preferences.

Advance care planning helps your loved ones and health providers know what matters most to you and respect your treatment preferences.

Ideally, advance care planning will result in your preferences being documented in a plan known as an Advance Care Directive and the appointment of a substitute decision maker to help ensure your preferences are respected.

Advance Care Directive

Your GP should complete an Advance Care Directive for you. You will need to consent for this to be recorded in Western Health records.

Witnessing requirements

After you complete the advance care directive, you will need to sign the form in front of two witnesses. One of your witnesses must be a registered medical doctor. Neither witness can be someone you have appointed as your medical treatment decision maker.

Your witnesses will need to certify that you have decision-making capacity to complete the Advance Care Directive, have understood the nature and effect of each statement in your directive, and that you signed freely and voluntarily.

When the Directive is completed, your GP must fax a copy of the fully completed Advance Care Directive to:

GP Integration Unit

Fax: 8345 1180

The Advance Care Directive can include an instructional directive and/or a value directive:

Instructional directive

This is a statement of your medical treatment decision and takes effect as if you had consented to, or refused, the medical treatment.

An illness or injury may mean that you do not have decision-making capacity to make medical treatment decisions. Other than in an emergency, your health practitioner must make reasonable efforts to find out whether you have made an instructional directive. If you have, your health practitioner must follow the instructions in the directive.

To make an instructional directive, you can use the form for adults developed by Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services.

<https://www.health.vic.gov.au/patient-care/advance-care-planning-forms>

Value directive

A value directive is a statement of your values and preferences for your medical treatment. If you do not have decision-making capacity to make a medical treatment decision, and have not made a relevant instructional directive, your health practitioner will ask your medical treatment decision maker to make the decision on your behalf. To do this, they must consider, among other things:

your value directive (if applicable)
other values or preferences you have expressed.

More key points

Medical Powers of Attorney made prior to 12 March 2018 will remain valid until revoked or expired. They will be considered Medical Treatment Decision Makers under the legislation.

Where a health practitioner is unable to locate an Advance Care Directive and/or a medical treatment decision maker, the health practitioner may proceed if the medical treatment is routine. If the treatment is significant, the health practitioner must notify the Office of the Public Advocate.

Who this service is for

The Medical Treatment Planning & Decision Act 2017 (Vic) commenced on 12 March 2018 and now governs medical treatment decision making in Victoria.

The Act allows people with decision-making capacity to:

Forward plan their own care by making advance care directives.
Appoint a medical treatment decision maker (formerly a responsible person or power of attorney) and a support person and establish a process for medical treatment decision making when another person no longer has decision-making capacity.