Advance Health Directives

Making an Advance Health Directive will help health professionals and your loved ones to know what treatment you would want – or not want –to receive if you ever became sick or injured and were incapable of communicating your wishes

In your Advance Health Directive, you can include:

• your values and preferences, including what is most important to you about your health and care.You can also write down what worries you about your future health, such as being in constant pain, not being able to recognise your family.
• decisions about future treatments you that you do or do not want.You can include medical, surgical, mental health and dental treatments, palliative care and measures such as life-support and resuscitation. The form includes both tick box and free text questions to allow you to record treatment decisions in a variety of ways.It is helpful to include as much detail as possible to inform those you may make decisions on your behalf in the future your treatment decisions.

It can be hard to think about how your health might change and what specific treatments you may need in the future. Recording your values and preferences in your Advance Health Directive can help those close to you and your health professionals understand what is important to you. This will help inform decisions they may need to make on your behalf if the treatment is not included in your Advance Health Directive. 

You cannot use your Advance Health Directive to:

• formally register your interest in organ and tissue donation
• consent to voluntary assisted dying.

• Start by reading the Advance Health Directive (PDF 500KB) and the Read the Guide to Making an Advance Health Directive in WA (PDF 1.5MB) (also available in video format – see AHD resources above).
• Think about what matters to you most about your values, health and health care and what will matter most if you become very unwell or injured in future.
• Talk to close family and friends about what is important to you.
• Seek medical and/or legal advice as needed.
• Complete the details in your Advance Health Directive by hand or type into the electronic PDF form.
• Sign your Advance Health Directive in the presence of 2 witnesses aged 18 years or older, including one person who is authorised to witness statutory declarations in WA.
• Plan a time (in 2 to 5 years) to review your Advance Health Directive or do it when your health circumstances change.

• Scan and copy to My Health Record (external site) to ensure your Advance Health Directive is available to your treating health professionals.
• Keep the original Advance Health Directive in a safe place.
• Give certified copies of your Advance Health Directive to close family and friends and people who are involved in your care, such as your GP.

Yes. In most situations, if you become unable to make or communicate decisions about your treatment and care, health professionals must follow the decisions in your Advance Health Directive, except in some limited exceptions. A limited exception may occur if:

• circumstances relevant to your treatment decision have changed since you made the treatment decision, and
• you could not have reasonably anticipated those changes when you made your Advance Health Directive, and
• it is likely that a reasonable person with knowledge of the change of circumstances would change their mind about the treatment decision.

If you are unable to make decisions for yourself and non-urgent treatment is needed, treatment decisions will be made according to the Hierarchy of treatment decision-makers (PDF 1.5MB).

If you do not have an Advance Health Directive, or your Advance Health Directive does not cover the treatment decision required, the health professional will seek a treatment decision from the first person on the hierarchy who:

• is 18 years or older
• has full legal capacity
• is reasonably available
• is willing to make the decision.