AUTONOMY AND “ADVANCE CARE PLAN”
- To the ethicist or philosopher, this is a broad concept.
- To the patient, it is all about having independence to choose treatments, and a capacity to give effect to such treatment.
- Sadly, capacity wilts in time, often associated with fabric decay and the development of insufferable disease.
- Thus the importance for patients to define their intentions.
- These intentions may have expression in documents known as an “Advance Care Plan”.
- Such a plan is embodied in a document which appoints an Enduring Power of Attorney and defines your intentions, in the event of incapacity.
- Renal disease is not infrequently associated with devastating cardiac, cerebral, or other disease, and a patient may well wish to have indicated in advance, the sort of treatments they deem acceptable rather than allowing The System to choose these treatments for them.
- The documents relevant to an Advanced Care Plan are obtainable from The Canberra Hospital Renal Unit Social Worker.
- For those patients who dialyse at units in New South Wales, the relevant documents to make an Advance Care Plan are obtainable through those units.
- It is important that you consider these documents and if you feel they are applicable, fill them out and bring them for discussion and incorporation into your clinical notes.
USEFUL LINKS
- Advance Care Directive Association – http://www.advancecaredirectives.org.au
- Respecting patient choices – www.respectingpatientchoices.org.au
- RACGP – www.racgp.org.au/guidelines/advancecareplans
- Palliative Care Australia – www.palliativecare.org