Over the past two years, BCCPC’s Advance Care Planning for Dementia project has created programs and resources to help community organizations in British Columbia engage older adults (who are at the highest risk of dementia), people living with early stages of dementia, and their family and friends in advance care planning.
Our philosophy is that advance care planning is an important part of life planning, and while it can benefit everyone, it’s especially important for people living with dementia to begin the process as soon as possible knowing that the loss of decision-making capability is more certain in the later stages. People living with dementia can prepare for their future care and stay involved in decision making through advance care planning, especially when they’re supported by the people they trust.
Jump to: Setting you up for success | ACP training for staff and volunteers | Q&A tools to engage your clients | Resources for your clients and their families | Marketing tools | With thanks
Setting you up for success
The project has created programs and resources to help community organizations to deliver engaging, interactive public sessions on advance care planning. We rely on you to raise public awareness of advance care planning, and we are here to support you every step of the way.
Advance care planning training for staff and volunteers
Two complementary community-led advance care planning programs were developed for older adults, people living with early stages of dementia and their family and friends. Titled My Wishes, My Care…, the programs are:
1. A guided group conversation event to help participants explore their values, beliefs, and wishes for future health care and personal care. This is an important part of the advance care planning process.
2. A two-part information session to teach participants about the steps of advance care planning and offer information and resources to help them get started.
Through the Centre, staff and volunteers from community organizations received training, ongoing coaching, and a comprehensive toolkit of resources to help them deliver these programs in their communities.
BCCPC is committed to providing annual training sessions for new cohorts of organizations who are passionate about advance care planning and public education. Training sessions in 2022 will be announced through CentrePoint and our mailing list – stay tuned!
Question-and-answer tools to engage your clients
Tools containing question-and-answer scripts were developed to help you share information and resources about advance care planning through existing interactions with your clients, for example, during intake, support line conversations, and support groups.
There are two tools available for engaging:
1. Older adults and people living with early stages of dementia
2. Family and friend caregivers
Resources for your clients and their families
On our new online resource hub, you’ll find a comprehensive suite of advance care planning resources to support every step of the process. This includes:
1. Resources for older adults and people living with early stages of dementia:
A. My Wishes, My Care: Advance Care Planning Information Booklet, which walks the reader through the three steps of advance care planning, Think, Talk, Plan. The booklet also contains two additional resources:
o The health-care decision making flowchart, which illustrates how health-care decisions are made in BC.
o Advance care planning checklist, which helps individuals get started on their advance care plans.
B. My Wishes, My Care: Starting the Conversation is a worksheet of questions to help with thinking and talking about what matters most: values, beliefs, and wishes for future health care and personal care.
C. What you need to know about standard representation agreements (section 7) is a guide to understanding the standard representation agreement.
2. Resources for their family and friends:
A. You’ve been asked to be a substitute decision-maker, now what? is a guide to understanding the role, rights, and responsibilities of substitute decision makers in B.C.
Marketing tools to help you share resources
A Social Media & Marketing Toolkit is available to help you share these public-friendly resources in your community. It contains informational blurbs and graphics to support your own social media campaigns and newsletter releases.
All of these resources are designed to make it easy for you to engage people in your community – especially those living with dementia and their family/friend caregivers – in advance care planning. If you have any questions, or need any further support, we are available to help at office@bc-cpc.ca.
With thanks
This ambitious project was made possible by funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada; by the generous support of our project partners, Advisory Committee, Expert Task Group, public partners and BCCPC team members; and by the vital participation of the organizations who assisted with the pilot, implementation and spread phases of the project. Every contribution made this project a success, and we thank you all.
This initiative is supported by funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.