It is never too soon to think about planning ahead for what you would like to happen if you become ill, or if your illness gets worse.
Many people have good intentions with regard to getting their affairs in order, but life is busy, and it can be easy to focus on more immediate concerns. Financial considerations can discourage some people, since it costs money to pay a professional to complete your will or Power of Attorney documentation.
You might consider organising a 'Planning Ahead Workshop' where people can come along, free of charge. You could arrange for speakers, such as a local solicitor and a palliative care nurse, to talk about the importance of planning ahead. You could also set aside time at the event for people to start making their own plans, with advice and support available from knowledgeable volunteers.
You could follow up with attendees to see what action they took following the workshop, and potentially to hold another event where people can finish off the plans they started at the first workshop.
Gentle Dusk is a socially-minded partnership that works with communities and the workforce to raise awareness of the importance of end of life care planning. They deliver their own unique training programmes, events and workshops to staff, volunteers and the public helping them overcome barriers to talking about the end of life and increasing their knowledge of end of life planning.
They have kindly shared with us an overview of the Gentle Dusk Advance Care Planning Workshop, in case it assists others thinking of organising similar events. Gentle Dusk are available to run events across the UK, and more information about Gentle Dusk and the services they offer is available here: Gentle Dusk
Anticipatory Care Planning is about individual people thinking ahead and understanding their health. Healthcare Improvement Scotland have developed a toolkit to support people with this: Healthcare Improvement Scotland Anticipatory Care Planning Toolkit
Good LIfe, Good Death, Good Grief has collated information about how to plan ahead and why this is important is available here: GLGDGG online information on planning Ahead and Reluctant Planner's Guide To Death and Dying
Before I Go Solutions is a social enterprise based in Moray that aims to empower people to design and create their own end-of-life plan. They have devised a structure and method of end of life care planning that may be of interest to those wishing to encourage more people to plan ahead for death and dying: Before I Go Solutions
