title: Advance Care Planning: is quality end of life care really that simple?
abstract: The routine implementation of Advance Care Planning (ACP) is now a prominent feature of policy directed at improving end of life care in Australia. However, while complex ACP interventions may modestly reduce medical care at the end of life and enable more people to die at home or outside of acute hospital settings, existing legal, organisational, cultural and conceptual barriers limit the implementation and utility of ACP. We suggest that meaningful improvements in end of life care will not result from the institutionalisation of ACP but from more significant changes to the design and delivery of care.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED), School of Psychology, Department of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine (Velim), School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Centre for Haematology Department, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kerridge
authors.affiliation: Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED), School of Psychology, Department of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Phyllis N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Butow
authors.affiliation: Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED), School of Psychology, Department of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Martin H N
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Tattersall
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000592:standards*; D016223:Advance Directives; D001315:Australia; D003142:Communication; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000592:standards*
keywords: advance care planning; advance directives; bioethics; end of life; terminal care