1) Introduction:
a) A prepared, knowledgeable patient or caregiver is an Empowered Patient or Caregiver:
i) Why do you need to be empowered and knowledgeable?
ii) Why this is important no matter your age or health status.
iii) What are your patient rights?
2) What is Advance Care PlanningGǪand how is it different from Estate Planning?
i) Definition
ii) Putting together your health history and how it might save your life!
iii) What to do with all this information once you've put it all together making sure it gets to the people who need it.
3) Financial Planning for serious illness and injury: health care is not free in Canada!
a) What's covered under our medical plans and what's not
b) Health insurance and savings
4) Legal aspects of Advance Care Planning Documents:
a) When you need a lawyer and when you don't and how to pick the right one
b) Substitute Decision Makers (Health Proxy, Power of Attorney for Health, or Representative)
c) Advance Directives where and when they are legally binding,
d) Enduring Power of Attorney for your finances.
5) Your future health decision makers:
a) Why it's important to choose your future health care decision maker and the consequences of leaving it to chance.
b) Defining Substitute Decision Makers across Canada
i) Provincial breakdown of roles, responsibilities, and legal status
c) When Substitute Decision Makers can speak for you.
d) Choosing your future health decision makers: an exercise.
e) Consulting with a lawyer to get the decisions formalized:
i) Who to choose?
ii) How to get your documents drawn up.
6) Thinking ahead: Values, Beliefs and Preferences for future health care: what you would want for care if you are seriously injured, ill, or approaching end-of-life:
a) What stage of life are you in? What's your health status? Exercises in helping you get real about where you currently are.
b) What are your Values and Beliefs? An exercise to help you get clear on what would be important to you if you became seriously ill or facing a life-threatening or life-ending diagnosis.
c) Talking to those you love about your values, beliefs and wishes for future health care.
d) Talking to your doctor about your health and your future health care.
e) MOST, MOLST, POLST and other confusing medical documents and what they mean to your health care:
i) Determining what level of care you want before a health care crisis
ii) No Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (No CPR) or Do Not Resuscitation: what you need to know so your wishes are honoured.
7) Putting it to paper: writing your Advance Directive. A step-by-step process in writing a document that will be honoured by your healthcare team.
8) End-of-Life Considerations:
a) Palliative Care and Hospice
b) Medical Assistance in Dying
9) Resources
