National Palliative Care Week: the importance of forward thinking
Posted on May 25, 2023
This week is the 28th National Palliative Care Week, organised by Palliative Care Australia. Its purpose is to put matters of life and death at the forefront of Australia’s consciousness.
These are not always matters that people want to think about, but taking just a moment now to consider such big topics, allows you to plan ahead and put in place mechanisms enabling you to remain in control of your choices, when you are no longer able to express your wishes.
The aim of palliative care is to help a person manage a life-limiting or terminal illness, allowing them to live their life as fully and comfortably as possible. It involves pain relief and medication management, but also places a crucial focus on emotional support for the person who is sick, along with their family and carers.
Palliative care is offered from the time a person first receives a diagnosis. It is available in a wide array of forms and tailored to specific individual needs. Palliative care is available at hospitals, aged care facilities, hospices, or in one’s own home. It is intended to minimise stress and maximise comfort.
There are crucial documents you can prepare today that will come into effect when required and make any future palliative care as straightforward as possible for both you and your loved ones. You can rest easy because when needed, those documents will already be in place.
Palliative care becomes more difficult in the absence of well-drawn estate planning documents. Turning your mind to those documents before it becomes an urgent issue allows you to provide a trusted family member or friend with the authority to make financial, legal, lifestyle and medical decisions on your behalf, giving them confidence they are acting as you would want and allowing you peace of mind that your wishes will be followed.
We recommend that you should have the following estate planning documents in place (and kept up to date).
Advance Care Directive
The Advance Care Directive allows you to appoint someone to be your ‘Substitute Decision-Maker’. This trusted person (or people) can make medical and lifestyle decisions on your behalf, in the event you are unable to make those decisions yourself.
The document records your wishes in relation to medical treatments you want and don’t want and can include the circumstances under which you wish life support to be withdrawn, and your entry into nursing home care.
It is only with a valid Advance Care Directive that the person you trust has authority to communicate your binding wishes and values to a medical practitioner.
Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney allows you to appoint someone to make legal and financial decisions on your behalf. The document gives authority to the trusted person (or people) of your choice to act on your behalf to make payments, withdraw money, buy/sell real estate, and deal with your superannuation.
A Power of Attorney can be tailored to suit your needs and can include limitations and conditions imposed on your Attorney in order to securely meet your wishes.
Will
Your Will sets out how your assets are to be distributed and who is to benefit from your estate, after you have passed away. Your Will should be kept up to date and reviewed regularly to reflect your wishes and any changes to your circumstances. Your Will can be prepared, or updated, at any time while you have legal capacity.
These estate planning documents can be prepared quickly and cost-effectively. Legal capacity is required to create your estate planning documents. If capacity is lost, it may be too late to prepare the required documents; this can cause unnecessary difficulty for you and your loved ones.
If we can assist you with preparing or updating your Advance Care Directive, Power of Attorney or Will, please contact our Wills and Estate Planning team.
