Advance care planning : Planification préalable des soins : le projet sur le glossaire, rapport final

After the report was commissioned, further discussion by the Public Information and Awareness Working Group led to a broadening of the objectives for the report to include the perspectives of those working in the health, social and legal sectors with respect to their approaches to advance care planning and their experience in dealing with advance directives. [...] Depending on the informant, this is understood to mean: o A verbal or written expression by the patient of wishes for care; this can include the legal designation of a proxy o A comprehensive approach to care by all family members and all members of the health care team that is focused on respecting the patient’s wishes to the extent that this is possible o Most health care providers prefer the te [...] Informants who are lawyers stressed the importance of the need for the public and health care providers to understand the concept of capacity/incapacity and its relation to the ability to give informed consent. [...] Based on the research and interviews, the following are key factors in success: § Open communication over a period of time between: o patient and family members o physician and family o members of the care team § Initiating the advance care planning dialogue while the patient is capable of making decisions and is relatively healthy, rather than trying to do advance care planning in a health crisis