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The views and opinions expressed in our blog series are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by CareSearch, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health.
Life is full of moments when it's important to be open, to be ready, and to be heard. This is especially true when it's time to consider Advance Care Planning. However, not many people know about or get involved with advance care planning. This is why the initiative of National Advance Care Planning Week began. Advance Care Planning Australia, for the first time is running, National Advance Care Planning Week. National Advance Care Planning Week is running from 16 – 22 April 2018 and for the event we started with a simple, yet ambitious goal; let’s encourages all Australians to make their future health care preferences known. We wanted to challenge people – not just the elderly, but fit and healthy people - to start conversations with loved ones about what living well means to them and to consider who they would want to speak for them, if they were too sick to speak for themselves. The process of advance care planning ensures your voice is heard if medical decisions have to be made for you. Having these conversations with your medical treatment decision maker and documenting your values and preferences in an Advance Care Directive, takes the guess work out any decision making process. However, starting the conversation can be hard, so to help we have gathered a series of resources you can use to plan for tomorrow so you can live for today;
We also put the call out to our networks and stakeholders to support the initiative and get involved. We have been astounded with the response. Here’s what has been achieved so far:
You can find out more about National Advance Care Planning Week and advance care planning by visiting https://www.advancecareplanning.org.au/acpweek#/. Linda Nolte, Program Director, Advance Care Planning Australia