Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal services or advice.

We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice. 

An Advance Care Plan is a document that sets out any medical treatment you do or do not consent to – in advance, to be relied on only in the event you lose decision-making capacity.

An Advance Care Plan can also set out your values. That is, those things that are important to you (and which may influence your choices) – such as being able to communicate with your loved ones. Setting out your values can help inform your doctors, carers and substitute decision-makers about what treatment you would or would not have consented to.

If one day you lose decision-making capacity, an Advance Care Plan can assist those involved with your care to make treatment decisions on your behalf by informing them of your wishes. It is therefore important you share your Advance Care Plan with others so it is readily available in the event you lose capacity (which can happen suddenly and unexpectedly, such as in the case of a head injury).

Your Advance Care Plan can inform your family and doctors what specific treatments you do and do not want. It can also inform them what your values are, so they can be guided in deciding what treatment you would or would not have wanted (if such treatment is not specified in your Advance Care Plan). An Advance Care Plan will assist your family or doctors in making decisions about your medical treatment that are in line with your preferences in the event you cannot speak for yourself.

An ‘Advance Care Plan’ is separate and distinct from a document prepared by health practitioners to plan your care, which is often referred to as a ‘Care Plan’. An Advance Care Plan is not to be confused with a Care Plan (which should include an Advance Care Plan).

While a Care Plan should be prepared taking your preferences into account (particularly if you are in aged care), it is not an Advance Care Plan. An Advance Care Plan can only be completed by you, and sets out your choices only. It does not include an assessment of your needs, which a Care Plan does. While an Advance Care Plan may be completed with support from health practitioners, it cannot be completed by them.

Yes.. The link to each State’s form you can find below.

You can use the TLC advance care planning platform to  upload these forms, share them with others, create a QR code, and also upload them to My Health Record. You can use the TLC platform to share them with your care provider.

Please make sure you work your way through the whole form and do not leave it unfinished. 

Here are all of the state based forms:

• ACT
• NT
• NSW
• VIC
• TAS
• SA
• WA

Start your plan today

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice.

We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

Any  valid expression of your wishes that must be considered by health professionals when making decisions about you.

An advance care plan made with the aid of the Touchstone Life Care conversation prompter is an Advance Care Directive made at Common Law. This is not the same as a Statutory directive, which are different in every state, (and do not exist at all in NSW and Tasmania) These have a variety of names- some are called Health Care Directives, others a State Advance Care Directive.

The unique automated sharing system of Touchstone’s platform grants additional validity to your plan because your trusted contacts can see, read and discuss the plan ahead of time, and provide evidence it was prepared without coercion, and that you had capacity at the time you made it. Or, if there is any doubt about your plan they can contact you or the other contacts listed to discuss their concerns about it.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

An Advance Care Plan might also be referred to as an Advance Care Directive, Living Will, or Statement of Choices. In different parts of Australia it is also known as an Advance Health Directive, Health Direction or Advance Personal Plan.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

If you are 18 years and over, you are presumed to have decision-making capacity. No one will question this unless there is a reason to.

Even so, at some stage your decision-making capacity may become impaired by disease or injury, or even drugs or alcohol. You might lose decision-making capacity permanently (for example, if you sustain serious irreversible brain damage), or temporarily (for example, if you are put into an induced coma).

In order to have decision-making capacity, you must be able to:

• Understand the nature of the decision that is being made (including the information provided to you in relation to that decision);
• Understand the risks and consequences of the decision (and be able to weigh them up); and
  
• Be able to communicate the decision (whether verbally or otherwise).

If there is any doubt as to your decision-making capacity we strongly recommend you have this confirmed by your GP and upload their summary report with your Advance Care Plan. This will offer reassurance to anyone seeking to rely on your Advance Care Plan later, that you understood your decisions when making them.

It will increase the likelihood that your Advance Care Plan will be complied with, and your wishes followed. Remember that even if you have dementia or are unable to understand some things, it does not necessarily mean you do not have decision-making capacity to make an Advance Care Plan.

However if there is any reason your decision-making capacity might be impaired, it is even more important to have a formal assessment by your GP or other professions.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

We urge everyone who is 18 years or over to prepare an Advance Care Plan, even if you are fit and well.

Advance Care Plans have even greater importance in certain circumstances, for example if:

• you are elderly or frail;
  
• you have a chronic illness;
  
• you have multiple diseases;
  
• you have an early cognitive impairment;
  
• you are admitted into a care home or hospital;
  
• you are approaching your end of life;
  
• you are about to be admitted to hospital or have major surgery.
  

Life is unpredictable. It is therefore best to prepare your Advance Care Plan while you are healthy, to ensure you have time to discuss your wishes with family, doctors and trusted advisors.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

If you have decision-making capacity, your Advance Care Plan cannot be used and consent must be obtained from you directly.

An Advance Care Plan only comes into effect if you become unable to make or communicate your own decisions regarding medical treatment, and only in circumstances covered by the Advance Care Plan. 

Your Advance Care Plan may be used if you temporarily lose decision-making capacity. However, once you regain it your Advance Care Plan will no longer be relevant and consent will only be sought directly from you.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

An Advance Care Plan will not cover all treatments – only the ones you specify. It is important to be as clear and specific as possible about what treatments you do and do not want.

An Advance Care Plan also cannot compel a health practitioner to withhold palliative care, assist you to die, or give you treatment which is futile.

Since it is not possible to cover every conceivable treatment in an Advance Care Plan, it is a good idea to set out what is important to you, and the things you need to live your minimum quality of life – such as being able to communicate with your loved ones. These values will guide health practitioners to assess whether you would have consented to particular treatment in a given circumstance. For example, if life-saving brain surgery would inevitably leave you non-communicative (eg. in a permanent vegetative state) and you have indicated you do not want to live this way, your doctors might decide against performing such surgery.

Note that setting out your values alone (without being specific about treatment) will be open to interpretation. In the example given, a decision to operate could be made if it is believed you might be able to communicate with assistance, and therefore would have consented on the basis of your values.

Therefore if there is treatment or outcomes you absolutely want to exclude, you should be very specific about that in your Advance Care Plan. 

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

A Will sets out your wishes in relation to your assets after you pass, whereas an Advance Care Plan sets out your wishes in relation to your medical treatment while you are still living. It does not operate after you die, but only after you lose capacity (even temporarily) to make decisions about your medical treatment. This is why sometimes Advance Care Plans are called ‘Living Wills’.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

An Advance Care Plan is a document which sets out your wishes in relation to medical care. It expresses your consent, or refusal or consent in advance. Unlike powers of attorney or guardianship, an Advance Care Plan in itself does not empower another person to make a decision for you.

A person who makes medical treatment decisions on your behalf, if you lose decision-making capacity, is generally referred to as a substitute decision maker. A substitute decision maker must have regard to your wishes, including those set out in your Advance Care Plan. This is because a substitute decision maker must decide your medical treatment in accordance with what they believe you would have wanted (and not in accordance with what they believe your best interests are).

Every state and territory in Australia has different laws around powers of attorney and guardianship. Depending on your state or territory and individual circumstances, your substitute decision-maker might be your power of attorney, or a guardian.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

Touchstone’s Advance Care Planning software includes enabling you to nominate a substitute decision maker.

However, depending on your state or territory, only certain substitute decision makers might be recognised at law. Depending on your state or territory a substitute decision-maker is also known as a medical treatment decision maker or a person responsible.

A health practitioner may be obliged to consult a legally recognised substitute decision-maker rather than the person you nominate on your Advance Care Plan. We therefore strongly recommend you seek advice in your own state or territory as to how to formally appoint a substitute decision maker (or medical treatment decision maker/person responsible), consistent with the person nominated in your Advance Care Plan.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

If you have decision-making capacity, the content of your Advance Care Plan is entirely up to you.

However, if anyone is concerned about your decision-making capacity at the time of making your Advance Care Plan (including your family), they might challenge it. Similarly, a health practitioner might challenge your Advance Care Plan if they doubt its validity, or that it applies to particular circumstances at hand.

Each state and territory has different legal mechanisms to do this, whether by application to a court or tribunal.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

A person might challenge your Advance Care Plan if they do not believe it was validly made – for example, if:

• They believe you did not have decision-making capacity at the time of making it;
• They believe you did not understand the nature of the decision/s;
• They believe you did not understand the risks or consequences of your decision/s;
• Circumstances have changed such that your Advance Care Plan no longer appears to apply, or circumstances have arisen which you were unlikely to (or could not have) anticipated at the time of making the Advance Care Plan;
  
• They suspect the Advance Care Plan is fraudulent;
  
• They are concerned your Advance Care Plan may not have been made freely or voluntarily, or that if may have been made with coercion;
  
• The Advance Care Plan is unclear or cannot be understood;
  
• The Advance Care Plan is contrary to other wishes you have previously expressed.
• Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice.

Touchstone provides a platform for documenting and sharing your wishes relating to medical treatment. The advance care plan created by using the questionnaire on Touchstone’s website does not meet the formalities required in state or territory legislation (it is not a statutory Advance Care Plan). If you would like the additional protection of an Advance Care Plan made under statute, you must speak to your GP or lawyer.

Our Advance Care Plan offers a simple and easy mechanism to create a statement of your wishes. However ultimately it is only a court or tribunal that can declare an Advance Care Plan to be legally binding. They might need to do this if the validity of an Advance Care Plan is challenged.

There are other circumstances when a health practitioner is not bound by your Advance Care Plan, namely:

• If the treatment consented to is futile;
  
• If the treatment refused is palliative care;
  
• If decision-making capacity is required of a patient in order to lawfully administer the treatment (eg. voluntary assisted dying in Victoria);
  
• If other laws apply which preclude a health practitioner from relying on the Advance Care Plan.
• Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

The Touchstone Life Care platform provides a mechanism for you to share your Advance Care Plan. Once you have completed your Advance Care Plan, you can share it via a secure link with your family, doctors and other trusted advisors. This allows them to view a copy of your Advance Care Plan but does not allow them to access, edit or delete the document.

It is your choice whether you share your Advance Care Plan with anyone at all. However we strongly encourage you to do so. We believe that sharing your Advance Care Plan with loved ones will encourage discussion about your wishes and reduce the risk of confusion and conflict if a time comes when a decision about your medical treatment needs to be made.

Sharing, discussing, or creating your Advance Care Plan together with your family, GP and lawyer is a good idea.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

We cannot guarantee that your Advance Care Plan will not be challenged by another person. However Touchstone Life Care provides a mechanism for you to share your Advance Care Plan or Advance Care Directive via a secure link with your family, doctors and other trusted advisors. This allows them to view a copy of your plan but does not allow them to access, edit or delete the document.

It is your choice whether you share your Advance Care Plan with anyone at all. 

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

You should review your Advance Care Plan as regularly as possible, and amend or revoke it if necessary.

The Advance Care Plan on our system, once completed, will be deemed to reflect your current wishes. Sometimes your circumstances, values or beliefs change, or there might be advances in treatment that impact your decision/s. If this happens, it is important you immediately review your Advance Care Plan and verify, amend or revoke it.

We will send you a reminder every 12 months (at the time your subscription is renewed) to review and update your Advance Care Plan, preferably with the assistance of your GP.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

You can change your mind about your Advance Care Plan at any time. You can amend it, or revoke it completely.

You are the only person who can amend your Advance Care Plan, and while you have decision-making capacity, no one can revoke your Advance Care Plan but you.

As soon as you amend your Advance Care Plan, the last Advance Care Plan you made will be deleted from our system. You must ensure you destroy all hard copies of the old Advance Care Plan and share the updated copy with anyone with whom you shared your previous Advance Care Plan. You must also ask that they immediately destroy and deleted any copies of the old Advance Care Plan in their possession.

If you would like to revoke your Advance Care Plan, you can simply delete your account. Your Advance Care Plan will then not be accessible by anybody.

If you amend or revoke your Advance Care Plan, the people with whom you nominated to share your Advance Care Plan will be automatically and instantly notified by email.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

If you lose decision-making capacity, medical treatment may be lawfully given without your consent in an emergency if:

it is not known whether you consent; or
you are not known to have previously refused consent.

If a copy of your Advance Care Plan is not immediately available in the event of an emergency, a health practitioner may need to administer life-saving measures until they can contact your next of kin. It is therefore crucial to ensure your loved ones are aware of your Advance Care Plan and understand its contents.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

If possible, the hospital will be advised by you or your family when you are admitted. The hospital can also contact your GP if you or your family are unable to tell them. The hospital can be provided with a secure link to your Advance Care Plan either by you, your family, your GP or lawyer. Touchstone Life Care provides a QR Code for you to print and add to your wallet or fridge, or send to your trusted contacts so your plan can be scanned by an emergency worker’s mobile phone

If you choose, you may upload your Advance Care Plan to My Health Records. However if you amend or revoke your Advance Care Plan it is your responsibility to also update My Health Records immediately.

It is recommended that you keep an up-to-date hard copy of your Advance Care Plan in your home, handbag or wallet in case of an emergency.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

Touchstone’s Advance Care Plan is intended for use in Australia only. It would be up to health practitioners or carers overseas to decide how much they rely on your Advance Care Plan in the event you lose decision-making capacity.

If you intend to relocate overseas, we recommend you speak to a doctor or lawyer locally about how to make an Advance Care Plan.

Our organisation is based in Australia.

Our team is available at info@touchstonelifecare.com to answer any of your concerns or issues. We answer promptly and are happy to hear from you with any questions.

Yes.

You can print your Advance Care Plan and a QR code of it to be scanned by emergency responders if needed.

Note: Touchstone Life Care is not a legal entity and does not provide legal or medical services or advice. We recommend you seek independent legal and medical advice

Touchstone Life Care follows data security protocols.

Individual user records are separated using access control lists, ensuring no user data is exposed to any other user. The final public connection to and from the server will feature AES 256 bit encryption.

Our servers are located in an extremely secure, PCI DSS approved data centre in Sydney, with access strictly limited to secure personnel only.

If you have an account with us you can opt out at any time.

Simply send us an email at info@touchstonelifecare.com and let us know that you want to close and remove your account and all data.

We will be in touch to verify your identity so we can commence the removal.

Before removing your account, we will email you a copy of your Advance Care Plan.

You can download and print a copy of your plan.

By law, we have to keep a copy of your plan on our system for 7 years should you want to access it.

Yes we do. To read our Privacy Policy simply click here.

Please read our Terms of Use carefully. They can be accessed here.