Assessment 3: Advance Care Planning

Running Head: Assessment 3: Advance Care Planning
ASSESSMENT 3: ADVANCE CARE PLANNING
(THE RIGHT TO DETERMINE THE TIME AND PLACE TO
DIE)

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Assessment 3: Advance Care Planning
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
The concept of advanced care planning.....................................................................................3
The right of a person to determine the place and time of death.................................................4
Discussion about ethical dilemma..............................................................................................6
Responsibility of healthcare professionals and family members in providing assistance for
determining time and place of death..........................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference list..............................................................................................................................9

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Assessment 3: Advance Care Planning
Introduction
Advance care planning is a sensitive part of healthcare industry and legal boundaries
of this part differ in different places. This study is focusing on a case study of Melissa, who is
suffering from stage 4 of bowel cancer. She has experienced a lot of tragedies in her life and
this disease is forcing her to leave her parents and two children. Raising two children and
being separated from parents have made her a stronger personality. At present, she is
concerned about her medical condition and she has agreed to cooperate with the concerned
healthcare team in terms of her Advance care planning. Aim of this study is to evaluate her
right to determine the location and the time of her death. Current Victorian legislation for this
kind of cases is being discussed in this study.
The concept of advanced care planning
The process of advance care planning helps in promoting care that is consistent with
individual goals, beliefs, values and preferences. As stated by De Lima et al. (2017),
advanced care planning helps patients and their family members to plan for future health
decisions when the person may no longer be able to take own decisions. In this care process,
the person's values and current health conditions are discussed openly. This helps in making
decisions for future care. In this case, Melissa had frank conversations with her oncologists
several times. This has made her aware of the poor prognosis and she got the opportunity to
discuss future process of care. Australia's Victorian state government has developed a
different framework for providing end of life care. Main vision of this state government is to
provide optimal end of life care that can help to reduce pain and suffering of patients and
their families (Health.vic.gov.au, 2018). Advanced care planning is the central idea of
framework of Victoria's end of life care. This framework provides different resources and
tools that provide rights to people to talk about death. According to Victoria’s legislation, this

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Assessment 3: Advance Care Planning
framework is applicable to those patients who are likely to die within 12 months
(Health.vic.gov.au, 2018).
The right of a person to determine the place and time of death
Perspective of patients of palliative care unit regarding death
People, who are having end-of-life care, face mental distress at several times. As
mentioned by Hudson et al. (2015), patients with incurable disease first face the challenge of
accepting the fact that he or she must die in some days. It is challenging to accept this hard
truth and be prepared to leave closed ones. In the current case, Melissa is raising two children
single-handedly and her parents live far from her location. It is clear that her children need
her badly in their lives. However, her medical condition is not allowing her to stay with her
children for a long time. As per the case scenario, Melissa is a strong personality and she can
make decision of her death on her own. As opined by Townsend (2019), with the passage of
time, this kind of patients loses their mental stability in later stages of their life to make
appropriate decisions. Some of them consider one of their family members to make decisions
on their behalf. However, there are some patients like Melissa, who do not have a caring
family member to make decisions. Her children are not mature and her parents are not fit to
travel Victoria daily.
According to Duckett (2017), this kind of patients prefers to be a part of advance care
planning and wish to determine place and schedule for their death. For example, Melissa is
self-independent and strong enough to decide the schedule of her death. Victoria is the first
state that has successfully enacted the bill that permits patients like Melissa to decide about
their death. This kind of patient and their concerned healthcare providers must have
knowledge regarding existing laws that can support the patient in making decisions regarding
time and place of death. As stated by Yoong, Franco, William & Poon (2018), making this
kind of decision must be hard and challenging as family members and the patient go through