Advance care planning | Te whakamahere tiaki i mua i te wā taumaha

Advance care planning helps you, your whānau and your health care team plan for your future health and wellbeing, including your end-of-life care. Having an advance care plan makes it much easier for everyone to know what you want – especially if you can no longer speak for yourself.

You can do an advance care plan when you are well, or if you have a diagnosis or long-term condition. It can be reviewed if your health changes and new decisions have to be made. You can share the ways you would like those caring for you to look after your physical, emotional, spiritual and cultural needs.

Your advance care plan can also cover what sort of funeral you would like, whether you want to donate your organs, whether you want to be buried or cremated, where your important papers are and whether you have in place an enduring power of attorney or advance directive.

Plan helps whānau face an uncertain future

Having an advance care plan has helped Tahu Hikuroa and wife Jo to make some tough decisions and feel more in control about what lies ahead. Tahu has aggressive brain tumours that means his future is uncertain. As part of his advance care planning journey, they talked about how important it was to be together with the children in their home and hopefully for Tahu to die at home.

Knowing this has helped Jo face the reality that she may need more help to keep him at home as his health deteriorates. She is reassured that home support service will be there when they need it.  They have now also spoken with their sons about what to expect when their dad’s health does get worse.

Kia kōrero | Let's talk advance care planning - watch more stories on the advance care planning website – www.myacp.org.nz.