Supporting and encouraging individuals to look forward and consider the treatment and care they may require in the future is an increasingly important aspect of clinical care – in health and social care settings.
Whether the person is in an acute hospital, community hospital/unit, care home or receiving care in their own home, practitioners need to be mindful of decisions individuals may need to make, or have made, regarding future care – for urgent treatments, such as resuscitation, acute treatments or priorities for end-of-lifecare. At this time of pressures on NHS services, due to the Covid pandemic, individuals and clinicians are facing difficult decisions at a time of crisis. Advance Care Planning is therefore even more important at this time – and will continue to be so – in order to support individuals to make choices and decisions about their future care.
The underlying philosophy of treatment and care, under the Mental Capacity Act (2005), is to promote person-centred care, in accordance with the individual’s known choices, wishes, values and beliefs. To this end, the principles of the MCA are to encourage individuals to make their own decisions wherever possible and to ensure that decisions for those individuals who lack the capacity to consent to treatment and care are made in their best interests. The MCA aims to balance an individual’s right to make decisions for themselves with their right to be protected from harm if they lack capacity to make decisions to protect themselves. Advance Care Planning is one way in which a person can make known their decisions regarding treatment and care, to be considered in the future.
