Advance care planning training and resources

Important information

Health Professional Guide to Advance Care Planning in WA (PDF 1.5MB)
A detailed guide outlining the role health professionals can play in supporting people through the advance care planning process.
The Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 (external site)
The Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 provides a legislative basis for people to plan for how personal, lifestyle and treatment decisions should be made on their behalf in the future if they are unable to make reasonable judgments about these matters for themselves. The Regulations (external site) were amended in July 2022 and include a revised Advance Health Directive form that:
- includes the individual’s values and preferences, in addition to treatment decisions
- combines tick box and free text questions
- provides more guidance and examples
- includes consent to medical research.
Hierarchy of treatment decision-makers (PDF 1.6MB)
When seeking a treatment decision for a person who lacks the capacity to make their own judgements, health professionals must follow a set order of decision-makers, as specified in Section 110ZJ and 110ZD of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 (the Act). This is summarised by the Hierarchy of treatment decision-makers.
Final Report: Review of ACP resources for priority populations (PDF 2MB)
This review, conducted by Nous Group on behalf of the Department of Health WA, identified 63 recommendations to address the additional barriers that 6 priority groups face and how to better support them in undertaking ACP. Although primarily related to the Department of Health WA’s ACP related resources, several recommendations have broader relevance and applicability to other organisations.

Policies and frameworks

WA Health’s strategy for advance care planning education and awareness raising: for health professionals and the community (PDF 613KB)
The purpose of the Strategy is to outline WA Health’s approach to advance care planning awareness raising, training and education for health professionals and the community. The Strategy provides a holistic view of what is required in WA in regard to advance care planning education and awareness raising. Although the Strategy will primarily be used by WA Health to guide their activity over the next couple of years, it may also be a useful resource for other key advance care planning organisations and services to identify potential areas for action.
WA Health End-of-Life and Palliative Care Education and Training Framework
A reference tool to identify the knowledge and skills required by health professionals and staff who care for people with end-of-life and palliative care needs.
WA Health Aboriginal End-of-Life and Palliative Care Framework
Guidance for providing services that respect the cultural values and beliefs of Aboriginal people.
Final Report: Review of ACP resources for priority populations (PDF 2MB)
This review, conducted by Nous Group on behalf of the Department of Health WA, identified 63 recommendations to address the additional barriers that 6 priority groups face and how to better support them in undertaking ACP. Although primarily related to the Department of Health WA’s ACP related resources, several recommendations have broader relevance and applicability to other organisations.

Education and training resources

Advance care planning process

Advance Health Directive

Take 5 – Getting to know WA’s NEW Advance Health Directive (PPT 700KB)
A 5 minute education tool designed to deliver key messages about the revised Advance Health Directive to busy health professionals across the Health Service Providers.

Aged care

Communication

Cancer Council WA’s Palliative and Supportive Care Education (PASCE) Communication Skills Education Videos for Health Professionals (external site)
Advance Care Planning Australia: Starting a conversation with patients (external site).

Decision making for someone else

General practice

Advance Care Planning Australia Video: ACP for GPs (external site)
Think GP ACP in primary care (external site)
RACGP ACP for general practice (external site)
WA HealthPathway for Advance Care Planning – WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) (external site) – login required

Goals of Patient Care

Legislation

End of Life Law for Clinicians online training (external site)
Advance Care Planning Australia Webinar: ACP, the medico-legal elements (external site)

Tools for education providers

Template advance care planning education slides for health professionals (PPT 712kb)
A template PowerPoint presentation for use by anyone delivering advance care planning education to health professionals. The slides can be reformatted and tailored to suit the target audience. Developed by WA Department of Health with the aim of ensuring consistent messaging across WA.
Advance Care Planning Australia Virtual, facilitator training designed for health professionals and educators who have an interest in training others to upskill in advance care planning (external site).

Advance Health Directive launch

Launch of the WA revised Advance Health Directive and new advance care planning materials (external site)

Dementia

The Advance Project® dementia specific training and resources (external site)

Education sessions

Community education sessions

Palliative Care WA delivers free, informative and interactive community workshops on advance care planning and palliative care in Perth and regional WA. Workshops are run in person or online. For more information or to book a workshop visit Palliative Care WA (external site).

Health professional education sessions

Cancer Council WA’s Palliative and Supportive Education Program (PaSCE)

A number of subsidised and free education opportunities that can be accessed by creating a login to their online learning management portal (external site). This includes recordings of a series of advance care planning webinars targeting 5 different care settings.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners webinar recordings

WA Advance Health Directive update and the role of GPs in advance care planning (external site)
This webinar provides an update on the changes to the Advance Health Directive (AHD), which was released in August 2022, and the role of GPs in advance care planning (ACP), including supporting patients to prepare AHDs. It also covers the updated ACP WA HealthPathway, available resources and practical tips for GPs. CPD hours available.

Your role in advance care planning: measuring outcomes one year after the new Advance Health Directive release (external site)
This webinar discusses the use of the updated AHD in WA where there is currently low uptake. This session explores a new mini-audit activity for ACP and AHD that can be used to review whether opportunities to introduce ACP or AHD conversations into consultations, assessments and care plans are being maximized. Optional completion of the mini-audit will earn GPs 6 Measuring Outcomes CPD hours.

Information for consumers

Introductory information

Guided workbook

Your Guide to Advance Care Planning in WA: A workbook for planning your future care (PDF 1.3MB)

Easy Read: Your Guide to Advance Care Planning in WA: A workbook for planning your future care (PDF 6.3MB)

Advance care planning documents

Advance care planning documents in WA video (external site)

Advance Health Directive

Guide to making an Advance Health Directive videos

Order resources

Advance care planning resources order form (PDF 237KB).

Resources for Aboriginal people

Resources in other languages

Translated advance care planning resources (external site).

Monitoring and auditing resources

Advance Care Planning Improvement (ACPI) Toolkit (external site)
Provides health and aged care services with resources to support organisational advance care planning uptake, performance monitoring, and quality improvement. The toolkit complies with the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards and Aged Care Quality Standards.
Mini-audit of advance care planning and Advance Health Directives: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Activity (Word 77KB)
This mini-audit is designed for use in general practice to review whether opportunities to introduce ACP or AHD conversations into consultations, assessments and care plans are being adequately undertaken and recorded, and to help identify actions that practice teams can collectively take to increase effective ACP and AHD conversations. Includes a pre-filled quick log for earning CPD hours.

Where to get help