Advance care planning (ACP) can improve end-of-life care in line with a person’s wishes. In the seventh blog for our National Palliative Care Project series, Linda Nolte, Program Director at Advance Care Planning Australia discusses the aims of the national program and activities planned for the next three years to help improve care at the end of life.

As COVID-19 continues to disrupt our health and aged care services, there is a strong case for prioritising advance care planning (ACP) as part of the national response. Linda Nolte from Advance Care Planning Australia discusses how ACP could be better used to manage a surge in healthcare demand during the pandemic, with recommendations on how this might be achieved.

Discussions about CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) are difficult because they confront the person with death. However, when cardiac arrest occurs there is no time to ponder the pros and cons of CPR or to discuss this with the person’s substitute medical treatment decision-maker. Dr Barbara Hayes, Clinical Lead in Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care Consultant at Northern Health, discusses the importance of increasing awareness of CPR decision-making prior to acute illness and why discussions and decisions are a necessary part of medical treatment planning.

Advance care planning (ACP) is one of the main topics that callers to the ELDAC Helpline call for assistance with. Caroline Litster, Research Officer from ELDAC, discusses the type of ACP inquiries received, and how the Helpline team assist callers with navigating the more complex concerns around ACP in aged care, such as those relating to residents who lack decision-making capacity.

An important part of preparing for COVID-19 is to include advance care planning as part of your response. Only 25% of older Australians aged 65 years and over have documented their preferences in an Advance Care Directive. In her guest blog, Advance Care Planning Australia (ACPA) Program Director, Linda Nolte, shares why it is imperative to increase advance care planning for older Australians as the aged care sector prepares for the spread of the coronavirus.