Advance Care Planning (ACP)
Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a conversation with a healthcare professional (such as a nurse, a doctor or a social worker) to make a plan for what future treatments and type of care a person would like to receive should they become very ill or be involved in a serious accident or emergency. The conversation can be with more than one person and may involve family members, carers, friends or advocates. It has been found that these type of conversations with a healthcare professional can be practical in helping someone think about what they might want to happen in the future, and are most effective before a person's health has significantly declined or they have lost the ability to make independent decisions, e.g. deciding on whether to add a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) form to their medical record.
You can have these conversations when you feel ready and include whoever you want in them. When done right, Advance Care Planning helps you feel prepared for your future care and confident that your treatment will focus on what is most important to you, allowing you to live as well as possible.
Please click this link to access an easy to read document describing Advance Care Planning (ACP)
Benefits of Advance Care Planning:
- Making sure your treatment matches what you want
- Helping your family and caregivers during emergencies
- Guiding doctors to give you the care you prefer
- Encouraging family and caregiver conversations and understanding
Why are we doing this survey?
We are interested in understanding your experience, as well as the experience of family members, friends or carers with the process of having a conversation and making decisions on future care or treatments. We are particularly interested in the experiences of those who have had these conversations within the last 12 months, but welcome responses from anyone who has had or been involved in these conversations in the past.
The aim is to review these responses to make recommendations on how the process could be improved.
Therefore we would really appreciate your time in completing our short survey below, which should take no longer than 5 - 10 minutes to complete.
All your answers will be kept confidential (so you cannot be identified from them), reviewed only by the project team and will be deleted following completion of the project.
We understand that this can be a very difficult subject and can have a lasting impact on people and their carers, so if you feel you need additional support at any time, please refer to the resources in the below links:
Marie Curie:
NHS:
Care and support at the end of your life
What end of life care involves - NHS
Get help with grief after bereavement or loss - NHS
Mind:
Support and self-care for grief - Mind