Earlier this year you shared with us your experiences of Advance Care Directives
SA Health have been working on a revised version of the existing Advance Care Directive form and DIY Kit, a legally recognised document that provides direction about your wishes, preferences and instructions for future health care.
As part of their public consultation process, SA Health engaged The Plug-in to undertake research with older South Australians. In June 2022 we ran three (3) focus groups with 20 participants aged 50+ to understand the readability and usability of the revised form and guide.
What worked well?
Participants who had direct previous experience of ACDs felt there had been significant improvements made to the revised ACD form and guide to be more user-friendly and instructive. Overall, the guide provided clarity and context, and greatly helped participants consider what was required in the different parts of the form.
“I know I just started looking at this, but this looks heaps, heaps, heaps better than the one I did, and same thing with the guide, yeah this looks amazing!”
What would provide further help…
There were many areas of the form and guide that still had room for improvement. Participants explained that the very nature of an ACD makes it a difficult document to consider. A few key highlights of what would provide further help was the use of simpler language throughout the form and guide, detailed medical information to support certain parts of the form, and in-person support available to help complete one when needed.
“Something I found interesting, it’s not only the [complex] questions, I thought how can I write an answer to this, this section, in clear language that everyone is going to be able to understand, not just the people who are going to be my Substitute Decision-Makers but other third parties that don’t know me who are going to read this. They have to really clearly understand what you mean.”
Outcomes of the review
The findings from this study were translated into a detailed Key Findings Report and submitted to SA Health. SA Health are currently reviewing all submissions received throughout the consultation process to further refine the ACD form and guide prior to it being made publicly available. If you are interested in viewing the public consultation and progress on the YourSAy website, you can view it here.
Do you, or someone you know, need to complete an ACD?
The existing ACD form and DIY Kit is still available for people to access and complete one. The current version will still be valid legal documents following the launch of the new design. People with an existing ACD are not required to fill in a new one unless they need to. The Form and DIY Kit is available online (click here) or at Service SA.
Your contributions make a difference to the lives of older Australians.
For further information please contact The Plug-in on (08) 8224 5526 or email connect@theplugin.com.au
