Advance care planning funding confirmed for three years

The advance care planning (ACP) programme has had funding confirmed for a further three years. Senior programme manager Leigh Manson says this is fantastic news for the programme, which can now undertake some medium-term planning.

'I’d like to thank district health boards for their ongoing support of the programme. We have made some great progress over the past two years, and with this support we will be able to focus on continuing to increase the profile of advance care planning and support local implementation.'

She says highlights of the programme over the past 18 months include:

• Increased public awareness of advance care planning. 'As a result of the Kia kōrero | Let’s talk campaign and the amazing work that many district health board and primary health organisation ACP and communication teams have done.'
• Supporting clinicians to work with patients and their whānau. 'The national programme has worked with DHBs and other health providers to support clinicians with information and training and this is making a real difference to the quantity and quality of ACP conversations and improving the experience of the clinicians and their patients.'
• Involving volunteers. 'We have started training volunteers to encourage and support members of their communities to start thinking and talking about ACP and maybe to even start writing down their values and care preferences.'

Leigh Manson says future priorities include further increasing the public’s awareness of the importance of planning ahead, supporting people to do their advance care plans by providing useful resources in more languages, increasing the number of trained volunteers in communities, and ensuring our health workforce is prepared and able to have ACP conversations.