What kinds of personal care choices can be made?

You can express your wishes about anything related to your personal care - where you want to live, what you want to eat and wear, what kind of health care you want, how you prefer to be groomed and how you want your safety ensured. If, for any reason, you are not mentally capable of making a personal care choice that needs to be made, your health care providers are required to take direction from your substitute decision-maker. Your substitute decision-maker must follow your expressed wishes wherever possible. If it is impossible to follow your wishes, your substitute decision-maker must act in your best interests.

How can these choices best be made?

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for advance care planning. The process calls for careful thought and communication.

You may find it useful to think about your own values, wishes and resources. For example, is it important to you to live in your own home as long as possible? Do you have the financial means to do this? If you are unlikely to recover from an illness, do you wish to receive medical care that will prolong your life?

You should talk these things over with people who are close to you - it will help you now and them in the future.

You do not have to specify decisions for all possible situations; in fact, this would be impossible to do! It is more important that your substitute decisionmaker knows you, your values and beliefs and feels confident in acting on your behalf