#89 Getting Your House in Order: Thinking about what you don’t want  with Clare Fuller & Dani Ayre

In the third episode we continue to explore the model of Getting Your House in Order, describing it as a how to guide for Advance care Planning. We reflect on the foundations, What Matters Most to a person, and move on to explore thinking about the things you don’t want and how this can be documented in an Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment.

Key messages from our discussion

An Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (ADRT), sometimes known as Living Will,  is a decision you can make now to refuse a specific type of treatment at some time in the future. You can make an ADRT if:

• You are aged 18 years old or over and had the capacity to make, understand and communicate your decision when you made it

• You specify clearly which treatments you wish to refuse

• You explain the circumstances in which you wish to refuse them

• It is signed by you (and by a witness if you want to refuse life-sustaining treatment)

• You have made the advance decision of your own accord, without any harassment by anyone else

• You have not said or done anything that would contradict the advance decision since you made it (for example, saying that you've changed your mind)

• You include the statement that you refuse the treatment even if your life was at risk or shortened as a result

An Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment is a legal document that enables you to refuse a specific treatment in the event you lose capacity to make this decision

• An ADRT can be underpinned by an Advance Statement

  • An ADRT is also referred to as a Living Will

• You can find support to help you make an ADRT at the Compassion Dying Website

• If you know there is a specific treatment you would not wish, consider making an ADRT

Resource

See Compassion in Dying resource at: Living will (advance decision) 

Podcasts & blog relent to this episode

• Listen to Celia Kitzinger discuss ADRT: Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment with Celia Kitzinger

• Read my blog: Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care

• Access the Marie Curie  Advance decision to refuse treatment resource page

• You can access and buy the Lions Club Message in a bottle to store important documents in your fridge

Bio: 

Dani is a specialist Palliative Care nurse and Educator currently working at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. She has over 15 years’ experience in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PEoLC). She previously worked in Gibraltar for over 8 years, implementing and leading a Hospice Outreach Service for the community of Gibraltar. She has also worked in the community in Palliative care and Long Term conditions and briefly in the acute sector. 

Dani has furthered her knowledge throughout her career by achieving a Distinction in her PG Certificate at Masters level in Palliative Medicine and completed 2 further Masters modules in leadership and education in Palliative care. She is passionate about raising awareness and educating on Palliative care and the importance of Advance care Planning  not only to Health care professionals and the general public.