A free online "user-friendly" Canadian Patient Decision-Aid to assist us to make our Treatment Preferences known to Providers in the event of Serious but not necessarily Life-Ending Illness.

[Toby Stewart]

Hello PAN Members;
Living in reasonably good health in my eighth decade, I recently came across a comprehensive but quite "user-friendly" Canadian Decision-Aid which asks a series of multiple-choice questions, as it describes and defines treatment options (and their possible side-effects) for people wanting to record, edit, save and printout their treatment choices in severe/life-threatening situations.

I found it quite robust, easy to follow, and easy to edit or modify following my initial responses = as I digested the potential impacts and side effects of certain treatment options (eg. Chest Compressions), I could return to my password-protected online file in the days following to revisit and amend my initial responses.
It had an added welcome feature of allowing personal written comments to explain why I had made my treatment preferences following each of its sections.
Another positive feature was a section where I could describe treatment situations which I felt might be "worse than death".
The final section allowed me to write any questions or concerns I might have relative my preferences being followed should I be unable to communicate with my caregivers, etc..

After about four edits, being finally comfortable with my choices and my detailed explanations in support of my choices, I asked it to send me a "Dear Doctor" letter -- which could be printed and also emailed to my GP -- for discussion and for my medical file. I did this, and had a very positive phone discussion with my MD.
I also shared it with my 3 family Substitute Decision Makers, and discussed my wishes with them (in the possible event that I couldn't communicate my own treatment preferences to emergency responders or acute care medical staff at whatever time my unconscious body might require such emergency interventions).

This online Decision-Aid -- called the Plan Well Guide -- has been developed under direction of Dr. Darren Heyland, a critical care specialist and professor at Queens University in Kingston.

I recommend using this free online Guide -- as it gives me confidence that I am able to communicate my wishes and have them understood if/whenever the need might arise.

I'm excerpting part of a Globe&Mail article summary ( https://planwellguide.com/news/ ) which summarizes the difference between this Guide and an end-of-life Advance Care Directive: "Planning for end of life care, when you know for certain you are dying, is not the same as planning for serious illness, Advance Serious Illness Preparations and Planning (ASIPP). Dr. Heyland urged people to start planning for serious illness where there’s a possibility of death, but also survival, due to how the Coronavirus works – it’s a serious illness but not always a fatal illness."

Here are some of the sites Canadian media links describing this timely patient aid:
CBC The Current from May 25, 2020 https://bit.ly/3ej6IMc
The Globe & Mail March 30, 2020 https://tgam.ca/2Vrozc0

You can access this free Canadian Decision-Aid online at: https://planwellguide.com/
And there is a lot of additional information and many resource and supportive links on this site.

[Claudia Hernandez]

Excellent Resource, Thank you for sharing it.