It’s never too early to think about an advance care plan (ACP). An ACP is an important and valuable document that makes your health care wishes known when you can’t speak for yourself. Putting an ACP in place now – before an emergency situation occurs – is a gift to you and your loved ones. It will help ensure that the medical treatment you receive aligns with the treatment you want.
An ACP includes an advance directive, which states in writing your instructions, and names your health care agent – the person you choose to make medical decisions for you. You can change or update your ACP at any time. Inova is here to help with information and resources. Start the conversation today!
Advance care planning is the process of planning for future medical care, particularly for the event when the patient is unable to make his or her own decisions. It may also help relieve family members and physicians of their concerns in making difficult decisions during challenging moments. It should be a routine part of standard medical care. It may include advance directive documents such as a living will, power of attorney for healthcare decisions or healthcare agent.
An advance directive allows a person to document or verbally state to healthcare professionals and family in advance what their wishes are before that individual is unable to make decisions at the end of life.
Many materials exist on the topic of advance care planning for patients. Understanding it all can be a challenge. Yet they all have some key points in common. These include deciding who can speak for you when you cannot speak for yourself and identifying what your wishes for care would be.
We chose a few materials to help you start thinking and planning. Some of these are forms and some of them are more detailed guides. We placed them in three buckets:
Please review the instructions of each form/workbook, as it may not be necessary to complete every single item. These forms will be living documents as they can be updated as often as you would like.