What are Advanced Care Directives?

An advanced care directive empowers your loved ones to make decisions for you in the event you can no longer do so yourself. Such events may arise if you are:

• involved in a serious accident and are unconscious or in a coma;
• suffer a serious stroke;
• have dementia; or

• any other situation where you cannot make decisions for yourself.

In these cases, the advanced care directive allows you to direct others to carry out your wishes. These might cover instructions regarding:

• whether you would like your life support turned off in the event you are comatose;
• what your preferred living arrangements are; or
• end of life care.

The advanced care directive scheme replaces the guardianship scheme under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1993 (SA). Any guardian appointed and granted powers of guardianship prior to 1 July 2014 is now considered to be a substitute decision maker with an advanced care directive.

To prepare an advanced care directive, you must be aged at least 18 years old, understand what an advanced care directive is and know what and when it will be used for. It is important to note that an advanced care directive does not allow its maker to state their wishes regarding financial or legal matters. Such matters can only be dealt with in an enduring power of attorney or a Will. Ideally, the prepared person would have a valid enduring power of attorney, advanced care directive and Will.

If you would like to discuss advanced care directives or would like to prepare one, simply email us at info@straitslawyers.com or call at 08 8410 9069 to arrange an appointment.

Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice and Straits Lawyers will not be legally responsible for any actions you take based on this article.