Information about legal documents that allow you to control who will make decisions about your medical treatment in the future if you’re not able to make those decisions for yourself.
There are steps that you can take now that allow you to have a say about your medical treatment in the future if you’re not able to make decisions for yourself because of an injury or illness. This is known as ‘advanced care planning’.
You can choose to give a person the power to make decisions for you about your medical treatment. This person is called a ‘medical treatment decision maker’. Your medical treatment decision maker can only make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make these decisions because of injury or illness.
Your medical treatment decision maker should be someone you trust to respect your values and preferences for your medical treatment.
You can also appoint a ‘support person’ to help you to make, communicate to others and give effect to your medical treatment decisions. Unlike a medical treatment decision maker, a support person does not have the legal power to make decisions for you.
You can also choose to record your values and preferences for your medical treatment in a legal document called an ‘advance care directive’. An advance care directive also allows you to make decisions now about your future medical treatment that must be followed.
Your advance care directive can include:
Health Vic has forms for recording your decisions about medical treatment in the future, if you are not able to communicate your wishes or if you no longer have decision-making capacity. Forms include:
The Office of the Public Advocate has information and resources to help you choose and appoint a medical treatment decision maker or make an advance care directive.
On their website, you can also find Take Control [PDF 362KB], a guide to:
The Office of the Public Advocate Advice Service provides information, advice and assistance about medical treatment decision-making. The service is available during business hours and also accepts emergency enquiries at any time.
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