Anticipatory Care Planning

If you think your health is likely to get worse, it can help to talk and make plans for what is important to you, and your hopes and expectations for the future.

You can then record and share these discussions with the people involved in your care, and update them if there's anything you want to change.

Within NHS Scotland, planning for the future is usually called Anticipatory Care Planning and it involves talking about what you want or don’t want to happen in the future regarding any care you might need.

To do this properly, you’ll need to talk to your family, friends, any health or social care professionals you see regularly (eg doctor or nurse), and possibly a lawyer.

There are many aspects of Anticipatory Care Planning that you can start yourself, while other aspects might be brought up by a doctor or nurse if you become ill, or if your illness gets worse. Depending on your circumstances and wishes, Anticipatory Care Planning might include:

• Ensuring that your Key Information Summary has been completed by your GP
• Granting a Power of Attorney/Welfare Attorney
• Talking to your healthcare professional and those important to you about:
• your concerns
• the values that are important to you / your personal goals for care
• your understanding of your illness and the expectations you have for how it might progress over time
• any preferences you have for the type of care or treatment that might be beneficial in the future, and whether these preferences are likely to be available
• Thinking about organ donation (external link)
• Learning about Do Not Attempt Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation documentation, and thinking about whether this is something you might wish to make use of under some future circumstances.
• Thinking about whether you have views about medical treatments that you might not want to have under certain circumstances, and setting these views down within an Advance Directive
• Writing down your preferences so that others know what they are if you become unwell

Your thoughts and preferences may change over time, and if so, it is important to let people know.

By having these conversations and agreeing to have them written down you are giving guidance, confidence and strength to those closest to you in case you become ill and they have to speak or make decisions for you.

This will help to reduce stress because you have planned your future care together.

Some information about Anticipatory Care Planning is available on the NHS Inform website here: Anticipatory Care Planning - Thinking Ahead