Taking time to think ahead about what’s important to you, and what you might want to happen if your health changes, can be a useful exercise for you and those around you. This process is known as advance care planning. Thinking ahead: setting out your wishes for your future care and treatment supports you to understand and share your personal values, and preferences, for your future medical care with your loved ones and your healthcare team.
Your MS symptoms might not affect you much right now, but if they were to worsen, or you became unwell for another reason, do you know what treatments you’d be offered? Or who’d make decisions about your care if you were unable to decide for yourself?
This book gives you some guidance about what to cover if, and when, you choose to have some of these advance care planning discussions to ensure you have the best chance of your wishes being followed. It can be used alongside the Thinking Ahead advance statement template.
It covers topic including:
- Why plan ahead?
- Making decisions about your care
- What if I can’t make decisions for myself?
- What can I plan for?
- What if I know there’s a treatment I wouldn’t want?
- Recording and communicating your wishes.
