Quick Links to Documents for Dying
Documents for Dying – Part 1 – Introduction
Documents for Dying – Part 2 – Summaries [1]
Summaries of Six Documents for Dying
Will
A Will is a legal document containing instructions as to what should be done with your money and property after you die.
The Will comes into force as soon as you die, whereas the Enduring Power of Attorney, the Enduring Power of Guardianship and the Advance Health Directive only operate whilst you are alive.
An explanatory booklet and the form required if you wish to complete your own Will are available from Post Offices and newsagents.
Enduring Power of Attorney
An explanatory booklet and the form required if you wish to complete your own Enduring Power of Attorney are available from Post Offices and newsagents.
An Enduring Power of Attorney is a document that gives another person or persons, chosen by you, the legal power to act on your behalf for financial matters while you are still living. Your Attorney can look after your financial affairs if you are accidentally injured, if you become ill, if you are absent and cannot attend to matters yourself, or if you became mentally incapacitated.
Advance Care Planning: A Patient’s Guide Version 3
WA Department of Health 2017
Advance Care Planning is an ongoing discussion between a patient and their carers, family and health professionals about the patient’s values, beliefs, treatment and care options. It focuses in particular on the patient’s wishes for their future treatment and care should they no longer be able to make or communicate their decisions at the time they are needed.
This guide provides an overview of Advance Care Planning.
Download your PDF of Advance Care Planning: A Patient’s Guide here
https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Files/Corporate/general%20documents/Advance%20care%20planning/PDF/ACP_A_Patients_Guide.pdf
A Guide to Enduring Power of Guardianship in Western Australia
WA Office of the Public Advocate 2018
This guide is produced by the Public Advocate, the independent statutory officer appointed by the Western Australian Government to protect and promote the human rights of Western Australian adults with a decision-making disability. It provides information for people wanting to understand or complete an Enduring Power of Guardianship.
Changes to the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990, brought about by the Acts Amendment (Consent to Medical Treatment) Act 2008, introduced Enduring Powers of Guardianship and Advance Health Directives in Western Australia in February 2010.
These two tools enable Western Australians to plan for how decisions about their future lifestyle and health care will be made. They provide the opportunity for individuals to state their preferences about their future lifestyle and treatment decision-making, including choosing the people they would like to make such decisions on their behalf, should they later become unable to do so.
Download your PDF of A Guide to Enduring Power of Guardianship here
https://www.publicadvocate.wa.gov.au/_files/epg_kit.pdf
Advance Health Directive (Western Australia)
WA Department of Health 2017
This advance health directive contains treatment decisions in respect of my future treatment. A treatment decision in this advance health directive operates in respect of the treatment to which it applies at any time I am unable to make reasonable judgements in respect of that treatment.This advance health directive contains treatment decisions in respect of my future treatment.
Treatment is any medical, surgical or dental treatment or other health care (including palliative care and life sustaining measures such as assisted ventilation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation).
A treatment decision is a decision to consent or refuse consent to the commencement or continuation of any treatment.
A treatment decision operates only in the circumstances that you specify.
Treatment to which you consent in this advance health directive can be provided to you.
Treatment to which you refuse consent in this advance health directive cannot be provided to you.
Your enduring guardian or guardian or another person cannot consent or refuse consent on your behalf to any treatment to which this advance health directive applies.
Download your copy of the Advance Health Directive form here.
https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Files/Corporate/general%20documents/Advance%20care%20planning/PDF/advance_health_directive_form.ashx
Main Points of Last Letter to My Family
From Wheel of Life discussions during 2009-2012
- Personal thanks, goodbyes, apologies, wishes
- Buddha’s advice: death is a special time, it’s best for me to have a peaceful and virtuous mind, I will have heightened awareness near death even if unconscious
- Create a peaceful environment, talk to me even if I can’t communicate or I am unconscious
- Altar: set up a simple altar for me, see my list of items
- Buddha’s advice: I should continue my daily practices, or ask others to do them for me, see my list of preferred practices
- Medical treatment: refer to Living Will, summarize main points e.g. don’t heavily sedate me, let me die “naturally” without artificial life support, artificial nutrition, invasive therapies etc
- Nursing Home: If there is a Nursing Home you would prefer to go to – if you have to – say so here.
- Buddha’s advice: at the end, I should concentrate on the stages of death process, so some pain is preferable to complete sedation to allow my mind to function, quietness is needed, don’t cry or wail, silent prayers will help
- Buddha’s advice: my consciousness will leave my body up to 24 hours after I have stopped breathing, and in this period deep meditation is possible, so please leave my body alone till my consciousness has exited (OR, if you have chosen to donate your organs, say that you may cut out my organs before I have stopped breathing)
- Organ donation: refer to Living Will, summarize main points
- Funeral: list particular requests for the service etc
- Ashes: say what you would like to be done with them
[1] The Pure Land of the Indestructible Buddha, Incorporated 16 April 2021. Edited by Len Warren
