Are your family all on the same page?

Do you know what end-of-life care your mum, dad, spouse or partner would want? Do you know where they’d draw the line? And if you do know, do you have the legal authority to ensure their wishes are carried out?

Your family needs an Advance Care Plan.

What is an Advance Care Plan?

An Advance Care Plan is a document where your loved one:

It’s more than that though.

Preparing an Advance Care Plan is a chance for families to have loving, forgiving, healing conversations that draw you all closer and help everyone prepare for the future.

It will be a difficult day if or when your loved one can no longer speak for themselves. You’ll be experiencing many different and intense emotions.

But, with an advance care plan in place, you won’t face harrowing decisions where you’re unsure what your loved one would choose, nor will you be watching helplessly while doctors impose treatments that you don’t think they’d want.

A tale of two families

No Advance Care Plan in place

‘It was a horrendous experience to go through with nothing in place to know what she would have liked to happen and no authority to make any decisions on her behalf.’

A Touchstone Life Care Advance Care Plan in place

‘We knew ahead of time, before we were put in that situation in the hospital, what Dad wanted. And it made it so much easier.’

Which position would you rather be in?

"I can't believe that him scrolling the questionnaire on his phone on a sunny afternoon 2 years ago would become so important. We very much wanted to respect his wishes and help the doctors understand the life he wanted. The trauma team were so impressed that he had this readily available and easy to read plan, and were able to make decisions based on this. I very much recommend that everyone has a Touchstone Life Care plan as the decision making for his care was made so much easier."

I live in Australia, my sister lives in New Zealand and my brother lives in the UK. This would have been so useful when our dad passed away 4 years ago. Knowing what he wanted would really have made a difference.

My mum nearly lost her life last year. Her aged care facility gave a copy of her Advance Care Directive to the ambulance staff but it got lost somewhere along the way. She’d put so much careful thought into that plan and it was heartbreaking to realise it was totally useless when it was most needed.

Dad had a paper advance care plan in place. But it turned out he’d ticked ‘yes’ he wanted CPR and ‘yes’ to Do Not Resuscitate so his doctors didn’t know what to do when he went into cardiac arrest and neither did I. It was horrible.

My dad and I did our questionnaires together. It got us talking about things we had never discussed before. It was so easy.

How does an Advance Care Plan help?

People without an Advance Care Plan leave some of the most important choices of their life in other people’s hands. They’re immensely vulnerable.

An Advance Care Plan:

Helps your loved one access faster, better treatment in an emergency
Gives your loved one a sense of control over the way their life draws to a close
Gives them certainty that their wishes will be heard
Protects them against unwanted medical treatment by making their wishes known to doctors
Spares family members the pressure of making difficult decisions or the conflict that can arise when opinions differ.

Touchstone Life Care's plan covers all the bases

Touchstone Life Care’s way	The traditional way
Designed as a guided conversation so it’s easy to answer the questions.	Forms may be 20 pages long with unclear questions that prove unhelpful to your doctors and family.
Final version presents the most vital information (like whether you want to be resuscitated) on page 1 so your doctors can quickly see what you want.	Lengthy forms prove useless in an emergency as your doctors don’t have time to read page after page when they have to make split-second decisions about your care.
Digital plan that can be accessed & updated from anywhere, anytime by: QR code Touchstone Life Care app Inclusion in My Health Record Print out of plan or QR code.	Paper copy that’s easily misplaced in an emergency or may never be found.
Most up-to-date version is available at all times.	Outdated copy may be left in your file and used to guide your care.
Instantly and easily shared with many of your trusted contacts.	Your family, GP, lawyer or carers may not know you have written a plan or be able to find it.
Legally accepted as a Common Law Advance Care Directive wherever you are in Australia.	May only apply in the state it was written in – useless if something happens to you when you’re interstate.
One source of truth – other important forms can be uploaded to Touchstone Life Care including a VAD (in WA) or an Advance Care Plan done with your GP.	Important documents kept in different places. Unclear which one matters most.
Kept securely online and complies with all privacy requirements.	Security is easily compromised.

How do you open a discussion
about end-of-life care?

You’re convinced it would be a good idea for your loved one to have an advance care plan in place – how do you broach the topic with them?

To help you get started, we’ll give you FREE access to our training course on Advance Care Planning for Individuals and Families.

It’s an online course that you can complete at your own pace and covers 5 key areas of advance care planning.

If you don’t have time to do the course, let us reassure you that these conversations are rarely as difficult as you think they’re going to be. Often these discussions are invaluable opportunities to understand one another on a deeper level and express how much you mean to one another.

Tips for talking to a loved one
about end-of-life care

Treat it as a normal, albeit important, conversation. Pick a good time to introduce the topic when you’ve got time to talk and time to listen.

You might say something like, ‘I’ve been thinking about how we’d respond if something happened to you and urgent medical decisions had to be made. I’m not at all clear about what you’d want me to do in that situation. Maybe we could make an advanced care plan together so your wishes would be clear to everyone.’

Read up on advance care planning so that you can answer any questions your loved one may have. Encourage them to chat to their GP or carers about it too.

Go through Touchstone Life Care’s care planning process with them if they’d like. Often, it’s a valuable opportunity for important conversations – you’d be surprised what a positive experience it can be.

Lead by example – do your own ACP too. It’s not just elderly people or those with terminal illnesses who should have an ACP. Life can change in a heartbeat. We should all have an ACP in place, just in case.

We can support your

Advance Care Plan journey

If you would like support completing your Advance Care plan, we have experienced Consultants who can help you through the process.

Just like compiling a Will, sometimes you prefer support going through the process.

Sessions are 1 hour and $350 for one on one personalised telehealth support.

Create your Advance Care Plan

Our easy secure questionnaire can take as little as 10 minutes to complete, or as long as you and loved ones need.

Are your family all on the same page?

Your family needs an Advance Care Plan.

What is an Advance Care Plan?

It’s more than that though.

A tale of two families

No Advance Care Plan in place

A Touchstone Life Care Advance Care Plan in place

Which position would you rather be in?

How does an Advance Care Plan help?

An Advance Care Plan:

Touchstone Life Care's plan covers all the bases

How do you open a discussion
about end-of-life care?

Tips for talking to a loved one
about end-of-life care

We can support your

Advance Care Plan journey

Create your Advance Care Plan

ACPs for

Navigation

Stay in touch

Are your family all on the same page?

Your family needs an Advance Care Plan.

What is an Advance Care Plan?

It’s more than that though.

A tale of two families

No Advance Care Plan in place

A Touchstone Life Care Advance Care Plan in place

Which position would you rather be in?

How does an Advance Care Plan help?

An Advance Care Plan:

Touchstone Life Care's plan covers all the bases

How do you open a discussion about end-of-life care?

Tips for talking to a loved one about end-of-life care

We can support your

Advance Care Plan journey

Create your Advance Care Plan

ACPs for

Navigation

Stay in touch

How do you open a discussion
about end-of-life care?

Tips for talking to a loved one
about end-of-life care