Plan ahead to get the end-of-life care you want

Today is Conversations that Count Day, and Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne is urging New Zealanders both young and old to talk about the kind of care they would want if they were seriously ill or at the end of their life.

Conversations that Count Day, organised by the National Advance Care Planning Cooperative, urges people to break the ice and talk about future health care wishes with ‘your partner, a mate, with friends over lunch, or around the weekend barbie’.

“There are fundamental questions that all of us need to consider, sooner rather than later such as: Have you thought about what matters to you? Do you know who would speak for you if you were unable to speak? Do you have a preference about where you would like to be cared for if you were dying: in hospital, in a hospice or at home?

“These are just some of the questions you may not have considered, or because of poor health, may not be able to answer yourself at a later date. So it’s important you think about them now and make sure your family/whānau and friends know what you want, ideally with a written advance care plan that they and the health professionals caring for you can refer to,” says Mr Dunne.

“Advance care planning is especially important for people who have health problems, have been diagnosed with a serious illness, or are older. But even healthy younger people should think about a plan, because anyone can be affected by an accident or illness.”

The Cooperative’s website (www.advancecareplanning.org.nz) has resources to help start a ‘conversation that counts’ and prepare an advance care plan afterward.

Advance care planning and end-of-life care are the focus of Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End, the latest international bestseller by American health writer Dr Atul Gawande, who is talking on the subject at the Auckland Writers Festival on Saturday 16 May and in a public lecture in Wellington on Monday 18 May.