Advance Care Planning

This is a process of coming to understand, reflect on, discuss and plan for a time when you cannot make your own medical decisions and are unlikely to recover from your injury or illness. Effective planning is the best way to make sure your views are respected by your loved ones and health providers. This process also will provide great comfort to those who may make end-of-life decisions for you. Good advance care planning improves the quality of your advance directive.

Advance Directives

Advance directives are the plans you make for your future health care decisions in the event you cannot make these decisions for yourself.

An advance directive could be oral or in writing. Putting your plan in writing helps people accurately remember your plan, makes it easier to communicate to health care providers who do not know you and provides the possibility for it to be a legal document.

In Michigan, an advance directive lets you appoint the person you want to speak for you and make decisions on your behalf when you're not able to do so. That person is called your Patient Advocate. An advance directive also allows you to write down information about your beliefs, values and treatment preferences, all of which can help your Patient Advocate and your health care providers make the decisions you would want made.

National Health Care Decision Day is April 16. Learn about Advance Care Planning, how to begin the discussion, choose a patient advocate, and complete an advance directive. Register now for this free class >>