You may not have heard of an Advance Decision before but they’re a very powerful document for anyone who has strong feelings about what medical treatment they would want to receive, and would want to make sure that their wishes were followed even if they were in a state where they couldn’t make treatment decisions for themselves.

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An Advance Decision is a means of making sure your family and the professionals providing treatment to you know what your personal wishes for that treatment are even when you are unable to inform them yourself. This may be because you have lost capacity as a result of an illness such as dementia, or even due to a temporary lack of consciousness brought about by an accident.

 

If you feel strongly that you would not want to receive particular types of treatment in certain situations then this can be included in your Advance Decision. If you then find yourself in a situation that your Advance Decision applies to, a doctor would not be able to provide that treatment to you.

 

A common example would be a person who would like to refuse blood products because of their religious beliefs.

 

Article Written by the Society of Will Writers, Siobhan Smith, March 2020. 

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