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Irish Hospice Foundation
Toolkit for Compassionate End-of-Life Care
Always end discussions with a follow-up plan. People may need time to consider decisions, or reconsider what has been discussed. Advance care planning conversations should be ongoing. Document the conversation and share the information with the healthcare team, including the GP and treating physician. If a person has an advance care plan: • Encourage them to tell their relatives and friends that they have an ACP, and that this document outlines their wishes for their future care. • Suggest that the patient/resident discusses their ACP with any other healthcare teams they may be involved with (for example, other medical teams and treating consultants). • Advise the patient/resident to keep a copy of their ACP where it can be easily accessed (for example, if they have a pre-packed hospital bag, to keep a copy in it). •
Advise them to take their ACP with them whenever they might transfer between care settings (for example, on admission to hospital, attending at the Emergency Department, transferring to nursing home). • e ink Ahead Planning Pack is a customisable set of advance care planning tools developed by IHF. ese documents allow a person to record their wishes and decisions in the event of serious illness, injury or death. It is available on www.thinkahead.ie Advance Healthcare Directives An Advance Healthcare Directive (AHD), sometimes known as a ‘living will’, is a statement about the type and extent of medical or surgical treatment a person would want or not want in the future if they lack capacity to make or express that decision at that later time. Advance Healthcare Directives are important because they allow people to express their refusal or consent to any type of treatment, including life-sustaining treatments, ahead of time, in case they are later unable to do so for themselves. Any treatments a person refuses are legally-binding. A person may also name a Designated Healthcare Representative to consent and refuse treatments on their behalf. Having an Advance Healthcare Directive means there is no decision-making burden placed on family members or healthcare professionals because a person’s healthcare decisions and preference have been made known. In the absense of an Advance Healthcare Directive, healthcare decisions will be made by the healthcare team. However, an AHD makes it easier for healthcare professionals too because they know what a person’s wishes and preferences are in different healthcare situations that might arise.
Preparation 3
End-of-Life Care Planning and
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