When you prepare to talk about end-of-life decisions and the legacy you want to leave behind, try thinking about them as gifts you bestow to family and friends.
Whether CPR is performed in hospital will depend on the patient’s prospects of survival and recovery. But the doctors are also concerned about what the patient wants.
If you became suddenly unwell, would your family or health team know your wishes? Here’s why advance care planning should be part of Australia’s strategic response to COVID-19.
The seriously ill and their families often want to protect each other from thoughts of death. Conversation about end-of-life choices are, however, essential to a good death.
Few people like to talk about death, but research is suggesting that people should talk with loved ones about their wishes for their final days. You may be surprised which family member is most supportive.
The Victorian law provides if a child has made a valid advance directive including instructions to refuse a particular medical treatment, a health practitioner must not provide that treatment.
At least one-third of patients receive non-beneficial treatments at the end of their life. Having a good advance care directive that you share with others helps them know and respect your wishes.
We all have different ideas about the care we want at the end of our life. Some of us want doctors to do whatever it takes to keep us alive. Others don’t want to be kept alive if it means living with significant disability or a poor quality of life.
A new Medicare proposal would reimburse doctors for appointments to help patients plan what care they would want if they are too ill to speak for themselves. It’s about time.
We all die eventually, of course, but these days it’s very hard for doctors and loved ones to let patients and relatives die without doing “whatever it takes”.
The diagnosis of a palliative illness in a child or adolescent is devastating for all involved: parents, family members and the children themselves, as they grieve for life they had planned and believed…