Skip links and keyboard navigation

Health care decisions

    Planning for your future decision making is for everyone, not just the elderly. Now is the best time to put plans in place for your future decision making. The following general information may assist you. However, this is not legal advice and you should contact a legal practitioner for further information.

    You may need another person to make decisions about your health care if you are unable to. This might be due to accident, injury or some other medical condition which causes you to lose capacity to make decisions.

    To have the capacity to make decisions, you need to be able to:

    • understand the nature and effect of a decision
    • freely and voluntarily make those decisions; and communicate the decisions in some way.

    You may be required to make health care decisions for someone who does not have the capacity to make their own decisions. This may include adults who have an intellectual disability, mental illness or psychiatric disability, acquired brain injury or dementia.

    Advance health directives

    This is a formal way of giving instructions for your future health care, including when to stop or provide medical treatment in the event of a terminal illness, or conditions for resuscitation after an accident. It comes into effect only if you are unable to make your own decisions.

    Statutory health attorney

    If you have not appointed somebody to make health care decisions for you in an advance health directive or a personal attorney under an enduring power of attorney, a statutory health attorney will make health care decisions for you.

    A Statutory Health Attorney many be a spouse, close relative or carer (except a paid carer) and must be over 18 years old. You do not need to fill out any forms as a Statutory Health Attorney acts automatically.

    If there is nobody readily available and culturally appropriate to act as a person’s Statutory Health Attorney, the Adult Guardian can act as Statutory Health Attorney of last resort and will make a decision for the matter.

    Health care decisions for others

    You may be asked to make health care decisions on behalf of an adult family member or close friend who cannot make their own health care decisions due to illness, injury or a medical condition. Or you may need to make a health care decision for someone

    • unable to make their own decisions because they do not understand the nature and effect of the decision
    • cannot freely or voluntarily make the decision
    • cannot communicate the decision.
    This may include adults who have an intellectual disability, mental illness or psychiatric disability, acquired brain injury or dementia. This information may also assist health professionals.

    Enduring power of attorney forms

    Short form

    Use the short form if you wish to appoint the same attorney/s for both financial matters and personal matters (including health care). You may also use it to appoint an attorney (or attorneys) for financial matters onlyor for personal matters (including health care) only.

    Long form

    Use the long form if you wish to appoint an attorney/s for personal matters (including health care) and a different attorney/s for financial matters. If you wish to appoint the same attorney/s for both personal/health and financial matters, you use the short form.

    Revocation form

    Use the revocation form if you would like to revoke an enduring power of attorney.

    Last reviewed
    29 June 2010
    Last updated
    9 March 2012

    Rate this page

    1. How useful was the information on this page?
     
    Close window

    Send this page to a friend

    *
    *
    *