Advance decision
Would you like to decide in advance whether there are medical treatments you would not want to receive if you were involved in an accident or lost mental capacity?
Our Advice Team can assist you with creating legally binding instructions to medical professionals refusing specified medical treatments or procedures. It is a way of planning ahead, while you are still able to. This will ensure that even if you are unconscious or mentally incapable of making a decision at a specific time, you are not given a treatment you do not wish to have.
What does an advance decision include?
The advance decision covers all medical procedures and treatments which you do not wish to be given, which need to be listed specifically. Examples of treatments you might want to refuse include:
Artificial ventilation (a machine breathing for you)
Being put on a life-support machine
Being given a blood transfusion
Being ‘peg-fed’ (fed via a tube directly into your stomach or other part of your digestive system)
Being given a specific psychiatric or other drug to which you know you react badly
Why would I make an advance decision document?
You may wish to create an advance decision list if you are approaching the end of your life and it is highly likely you will lose capacity, e.g. motor neurone disease, Huntingdon’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or if you have a chronic severe mental health condition which fluctuates causing periods of mental incapacity or rational thought, for example bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia.
They can also be created by any fit and able adult who wants to plan ahead, in case they have an accident, stroke, or sudden loss of capacity.
How can I create an advance decision?
Creating an advance decision is a simpler and therefore less expensive alternative to creating a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney, although it is more limited and doesn’t give anyone else decision-making authority, nor does it cover anything other than refusing medical treatment.
Getting in contact
Phone: 0300 330 5514 (calls charged at the local rate)
Phoneline open hours: Monday to Friday 9.30am – 1.30pm
Email: advice@diverseabilities.org.uk
Address: Diverse Abilities Central Office, Langside School, Langside Avenue, Poole, BH12 5BN