Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning is like an umbrella with two different areas of importance — a discussion with your loved ones regarding your wishes, as well as completion of a legal document. We will go into more detail about the importance of the discussion and the documents needed to make your wishes known. The legal documents that are available in Wisconsin are: 

• Health care power of attorney
• Living will
• State DNR

The importance of advance care planning is to make sure your voice is heard. It also helps to make sure the health care providers and your family understand and follow your wishes. Advance care planning can also make you feel like you have a greater sense of control for what may happen in the future. And it allows the appointed decision maker to feel less stress if you have had conversations about what is important to you in your life. Having conversations about what is important to you also decreases potential uncertainty with family members. 

Advance care planning can be initiated when you are healthy or when you are experiencing a chronic or terminal illness. It is important to have conversations with your health care agents and health care provider to assure your wishes are known. 

How to Start the Advance Care Planning Conversation

Let's discuss examples of how to open conversations about your wishes. In the examples, you will see bold statements, such as "I don't want to be on machines" and "I want everything to be done." 

Instead of making a bold statement, open up conversation about what is important to you, such as "If I lose my ability to communicate in a meaningful way with my family, I would not want my life artificially prolonged" or "I value life. I want resuscitation as long as it will restore me to an acceptable level of function." Then, make it known what that level of function would be. 

The conversation with your selected agent is not just a one-time conversation, but rather an ongoing process. It is not just completing the documents, but helping your loved ones understand your values and preferences. It is also not just making choices about every possible medical situation, but really providing value statements and guidelines for how to make those decisions. 

It is important to revisit advance care planning every decade, upon divorce, after the death of a loved one, at the time of diagnosis or when a major decline in health occurs. 

We hope this empowers you to converse with your loved ones about your wishes for your health care. Please consider viewing "Understanding Advance Directives" for assistance in completing the advance care planning documents or reach out to your medical provider.