Advance care planning in residential aged-care facilities

People living in residential aged-care facilities often have multiple medical conditions and limited life expectancy. Increasingly, they also have dementia, with limited capacity to make decisions for themselves. Advance care planning in the early stages of a person’s disease is particularly important in this setting to ensure staff and family know about the person’s preferences for care and treatment. Admission to a residential aged-care facility is a useful trigger to initiate the process of advance care planning; some aged-care facilities require residents to complete an advance care plan on admission.

It is helpful to provide staff of residential aged-care facilities with instructions on how to manage likely health complications in a resident if they arise. In particular, clear instructions on what to do out of hours can prevent inappropriate resuscitation measures or transfer of residents to hospital by ambulance; see Communication of an advance care plan.