Supported decision-making for patients with palliative care needs

Supported decision-making enables patients to participate in decision-making and is preferred to substitute decision-making. Consider supported decision-making for a patient with palliative care needs when decision-making capacity fluctuates or diminishes. Support may come from healthcare professionals, family members, carers and others, and can include communication modifications, additional information resources and time to consider optionsKripke, 2018Sullivan, 2018. In some states (eg Victoria), legislation enables a patient to officially appoint a specific person as their support person. The support person’s role is to help the patient make, communicate and act on their decisions or to represent the patient’s interests. Support people do not have the power to independently make a patient’s decisions unless they are also appointed to be a substitute decision-maker.