Has someone appointed you as their Substitute Decision-Maker or are you thinking of appointing a Substitute Decision-Maker under your Advance Care Directive?
South Australia’s Office of the Public Advocate, with support from Office for Ageing Well, SA Health, has developed a toolkit to guide and inform Substitute Decision-Makers and their Appointers about this important role.
The toolkit, Now You Are a Substitute Decision-Maker was launched during Plan Ahead Week, which encourages discussions about future financial, health, legal and personal choices, and the completion of legal tools, such as Advance Care Directives.
The new toolkit includes a helpful guide with tear out pages for Substitute Decision-Makers to record their Appointer’s wishes, a suite of videos, a plain English fact sheet and an Easy Read fact sheet.
It provides clear, consistent, and easy to understand information about Advance Care Directives and useful tools and resources for Substitute Decision-Makers, so their Appointer can feel confident of their wishes being upheld.
Later in the year, Office of the Public Advocate will be out in the community offering information sessions to make the new resources available and answer questions about substitute decision-making.
All adults are encouraged to write down their wishes, values and preferences, for a time when they may need a Substitute Decision-Maker to make a decision for them.
To access the Substitute Decision-Maker toolkit visit the Office of the Public Advocate website at www.opa.sa.gov.au/sdm-toolkit.