Creating your plan
What tools can help me?
Advance care planning is a process that can be approached step by step. We have developed a simple five step process to guide you.
The first steps are thinking and talking about what is most important to you. After that, it’s helpful to write the key points down in an advance care plan so you can share what is important to you with others. We encourage you to review your advance care plan regularly to make sure it reflects your wishes.
These tools will help you:
think about what matters most
talk about your wishes with others
write down what is most important to you in an advance care plan
share your new or reviewed plan with your important people and your health care team.
Thinking about advance care planning
Take time to reflect on your values, beliefs, and what’s important for your health and wellbeing. Consider the care and treatment you would want if you became seriously ill or unable to tell people yourself, and talk about this with your important people and health care team.
Helpful resources
Whenua ki te whenua
An advance care planning guide for whānau
This guide was co-designed with a Māori advisory group as a resource for all New Zealanders.
Whenua ki te whenua helps you think about and talk through your values, beliefs and health priorities. It supports you to plan for your future care - especially if you become unwell and cannot tell people yourself.
It is a helpful first step before filling out your advance care plan. Inside you will find prompts, examples, and ideas to make conversations easier with your whānau and health care team.
You can order free hard copies of Whenua ki te whenua in English and te reo Māori by filling out this form.
Digital PDFs are available below to download and print.
Tōfā Fetāla’i - advance care planning
A guide to advance care planning created with the Samoan community for the Samoan community.
In the Samoan language, tōfā means knowledge and wisdom and fetālā’i means sharing with others. The guide is in both Samoan and English.
Tōfā Fetāla’i is a helpful first step before you complete your advance care plan. It provides prompts and guidance to help you think about what matters most and start meaningful conversations with your family and health care team.
To order hard copies at no charge, please fill out this form.
You can download a printable PDF below.
Writing down what is important to you
Once you’ve thought about and talked about what matters most, write down your wishes in an advance care plan. This helps your whānau and health care team understand what is most important to you and make sure your care reflects your values.
Resources
My advance care plan and guide
This is the full version in booklet format. It includes:
My advance care plan - where your record your wishes
Helpful guidance - prompts and ideas to support your thinking as you complete the plan.
You will need to fill this out by hand. You can download and print the PDF or order a free hard copy by filling out this form.
My advance care plan
This is the My advance care plan template only (without the guide).
It is a fillable PDF you can:
complete electronically - download and save to your computer or device first so you don’t lose your work.
Print and fill out by hand if you prefer.
You can save your plan as you go and share it with others by email.
Important: Do not fill out the electronic form in your web browser - it won't save your changes. Always download and save the form to your computer or device first.
My plan for a good life, right to the end
Easy read advance care plan
Developed for and by people with learning (intellectual) disabilities, My plan for a good life, right to the end, provides a simple way for people to understand what is involved in advance care planning and make their own choices. There is also a guidebook for supporters to help them adapt the planning process to suit each person’s needs.
Other useful resources
What matters most for your future care?
Advance care planning brochure
This brochure explains what advance care planning is and why it is important for everyone.
It outlines some of the benefits of planning for your future care and end-of-life and tells you what to do to create your advance care plan.
Who can I contact in my area?
This map shows the contacts for advance care planning in each region, as well as the process for storing your plan when it is complete.
Legal framework for medical decision-making video
This video is designed to help clinicians understand the legal framework of advance care planning including enduring powers of attorney for personal care and welfare and advance directives. A transcript is also available
He Waka Kakarauri
A model for engaging Māori in advance care planning (on Te Whatu Ora Te Tai Tokerau’s website).
Episode 8 - Advance Care Planning
A podcast, developed by the Otago Community Hospice, talking about advance care planning. It covers what advance care planning is, why it is important and how you might go about creating an advance care plan.
The podcast is 17 minutes long.
Please note: an advance directive does not require a lawyer to create, as is stated in the podcast. To learn more about advance directives, click here.
A set of advance care planning documents in Korean:
Making the most of your final years 인생의 마지막 시기를 위한 사전계획
Preparing for end of life 삶의 마지막을 위한 준비
Troubleshooting
If you are having trouble downloading and saving the electronic advance care plan, please check you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader, then download the form and follow the instructions above.
‘Conversations that count are highly important. You are giving a gift to your family, empowering them with the things that you hold dear to you’
—
Tammy Wells