Advance care planning hub
Advance care planning, or planning for the future, is something we can do to help make the care and support we experience in the future more suited to us. But knowing where to start can feel daunting. So we’ve put this hub together in the hopes you’ll find useful information, to help take control of your future care and support.
What is advance care planning?
Advance care planning is a tool in which we can make what, who, and where is important to us known.
It can take many forms, and not all of it has to be written down. It really depends on what you want to plan.
It can include medical decisions; you can even refuse certain medical treatments, if you really don’t want them. It can also include other decisions, like whether you’d like to remain in your own home or go into a residential home, or what your favourite food is etc.
Talking for England
Our ‘Talking for England’ guide is a DIY handbook for advance care planning. It covers a wide range of topics you might want to plan for, and you can pick and choose which you want to look at.
‘There are loads of amazing guides available on the practicalities of advance care planning. But I couldn’t find one that spoke about all the things you can plan for. It’s really hard to do that, because you can essentially plan ahead for anything you like. The aim of this guide is to get people thinking about things they might not otherwise think about’ says Joseph, our Office Manager.
You can download our Talking for England guide for free from here, and print it off at home:
Planning for the Future Hub – Rowcroft Hospice
Rowcroft Hospice has put together its Planning for the Future Hub, which brings together a huge amount of resources and useful information all about planning ahead. Click below to visit their site:
Starting the conversation – Compassion in Dying
Compassion in Dying is a charity that provides invaluable support to people, to help them to die well. This link is to their page on ‘Starting the conversation’ about advance care planning.
You might also find some other really useful information on their site. Click below to go to their homepage.
Death in the digital age
As more and more of our lives become affected by technology, you might want to consider what happens to your digital presence when you can no longer manage it yourself, or when you die.
For example, if you purchase a movie on a streaming service like Amazon Prime or Disney Plus, that means its part of your estate – in the same way a physical version of it (such as a DVD) would be part of your estate. But how can you leave it to someone, if them accessing your account breaks the terms and conditions?
The Digital Legacy Association is an organisation which pulls together a lot of information about digital legacies, and they’ve produced a template for a social media will – whilst it’s not legally-binding, it can be a great way for you to tell people what you want to happen to your digital presence.
Games and tools
Go Wish (online)
Go Wish is a card game with a free online version, meant to prompt conversation around our plans for the future. It has a stack of cards with a topic or action on it, and you have to sort it by importance to you.
Physical card games
We have two card games in our office. The first is called the Conversation Game, which is the UK version of the Go Wish game above. The second is called the Crucial Conversations Game by Huunuu, which encourages conversation, reflection, and story-telling.
These are available for borrowing for people we support and for our team. Get in touch to let us know if you would like to borrow a set! Or if you would like to purchase your own set, we have provided links to their respective webpages.