April 16 is Advanced Care Planning Day

If you couldn’t communicate for yourself, even temporarily, who would make your health and personal care decisions? Would they truly understand what matters most to you?

No one else can truly communicate for you when it comes to your health and personal care if you don’t have an advance care plan that is documented and shared.

By documenting your preferences now, you ensure your voice is heard and your care aligns with your choices, whatever the future brings. Advance care planning is for everyone, whether young or old, healthy or living with health challenges, and the best time to start is today.

This Advanced Care Planning Day, take the opportunity to plan and share your wishes, take charge of your future care, and ease the burden on those close to you who might otherwise face difficult decisions on your behalf.

What is advanced care planning?

Advance care planning is a way to help you think about, talk about and share your thoughts and
wishes about future health care. It gives you a “voice” in decision-making, helps you determine
who would communicate for you if you are unable to communicate for yourself.

The process of creating an Advance Care Plan includes:

• Writing down (or “documenting”) your wishes in a Health Care Directive
• Thinking about your values, beliefs and preferences for your future healthcare 
• Sharing these directions with a health care proxy chosen by you

A Health Care Directive is a written document that allows you to express your specific instructions as to the level and type of medical treatment you want performed if you are ever unable to indicate your wishes.

A health care proxy is someone you choose to make medical decisions on your behalf, should you become unable to do so. The proxy’s decisions will be based on the specific instructions in your Health Care Directive and their personal knowledge of your wishes. The proxy should be someone you trust who is well aware of your wishes and is willing to accept the responsibility.

You can download a Manitoba Health Care Directive here.

Why it’s important to have an Advanced Care Plan

Everyone should have an Advance Care Plan, no matter their age or current health status.

Advance Care Planning allows you to maintain control of your personal health care, giving you the opportunity to direct both the treatments that you might want to receive, but also treatments you might not want to receive.

It’s important to have ongoing conversations about your future health care with the person you appoint as your health care proxy. These conversations help them understand your wishes, values and priorities, so if they ever need to act as a substitute decision maker, they feel prepared to make choices that reflect and honour what you would want.

Legal and financial matters

Making sure your legal and financial matters are going to be taken care of by someone you trust is another important step when planning for your future.

An enduring power of attorney is a document that allows an individual to authorize another person to manage their financial or legal affairs should they become mentally incapable of managing their own affairs. The person transferring the power is called the donor and the person receiving the power is called the attorney.

Please note that while the form to complete a Health Care Directive is accessible on the Government of Manitoba website and can be completed independently, a power of attorney must be completed by a lawyer.