Legislative framework in Australia
Using Advance Care Directives (NSW) (March 2005) discusses the aims and principles of advance care planning.
The WA Department of Health publication, Discussion Paper – Medical Treatment for the Dying 2005 provides a detailed discussion of the issues underlying development of legislation in this area, and a description of each state’s legislative framework and approach.
Respecting Patient Choices is a program to support advance care planning. It has medico-legal FAQs that are particular to each state or territory.
Other evidence regarding advance care planning
There is little evidence at the level of RCTs or systematic reviews, but plenty of literature on the topic overall.
Some of the topics being investigated in the literature are …
- The extent to which advance directives actually influence care
- Application of advance directives in residential aged care facilities
- Information needs of patients completing advance directives, and whether specific additional information changes people’s opinions about their future care
- Patients’ perspectives on discussing end of life issues, barriers to using advance directives, preferences for more or less detailed plans and for more or less involvement in decision-making, and differences between different cultural groups
- Whether advanced directives reduce health expenditure
- What kinds of system changes and education are needed to improve end of life decision-making
Controversial issues
Much publicised cases lead to media discussion about end of life decision making processes, and the associated ethical and legal issues. For a review of these debates from the palliative care perspective, see the article “Resolving conflict in end-of-life care” by Ashby M, Kellehear A and Stoffell B MJA 2005, 183(5): 230 - 231.
This page was created on 04 January 2006. These pages are currently being reviewed and rewritten.
Last updated 28 September 2009