Advance care planning involves discussing and preparing for future decisions about your medical care if you become seriously ill or unable to communicate your wishes.
It involves decisions like:
If you want to be hospitalized
What life-saving measures your care team should take (CPR, intubation, etc.)
What life support should be provided
Having meaningful conversations with your loved ones is the most important part of advance care planning.
You may assume your loved ones know what you would want, but that’s not always true. In one study, people guessed nearly one out of three end-of-life decisions for their loved one incorrectly.
1. An emergency can happen to anyone at any moment. Everyone over 18 years old should consider an advanced directive.
2. Advance care planning lets your loved ones know what your end-of-life decisions are. Knowing that they followed your wishes may help your loved ones grieve more easily and feel less burden, guilt, and depression.
3. Colorado offers a free advanced directive form to help you outline your decisions. It’s called the Colorado MOST form.
4. You should review your advanced directives once a year or after any major life event (marriage, divorce, change in health).
5. Advanced directives can be changed at any time provider.
Advanced Directives put your decisions in writing. Your advanced directives may be designating medical power of attorney, writing a living will, or completing a Colorado MOST form.
Anyone over 18 should consider completing an advanced directive and talking to their loved ones about their wishes.
Advance care planning is not just for people who are very old or ill. At any age, a medical crisis could leave you unable to communicate your own health care decisions.
Please talk to your provider if you have any questions about advance care planning.
If you have any advanced directives, you should provide a copy to your health care provider.
Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment