National Advance Care Planning Week 16-22 March 2026

This year’s theme, “Your Story, Your Choice” highlights that advance care planning is about you – your life, your values, and your choices for your future health care.

These sessions are an opportunity to ask questions, understand choices, and find out how advance care planning can help ensure your wishes are respected in the future.

The information sessions will be held:

• Thursday, 19 March 2026
  • 10am – 12noon
  • 5.30pm - 7.30pm
• Twilight Room Musicians Club, Crystal Street, Broken Hill NSW 2880.

Advance care planning involves planning for a person’s future health care. It allows them to decide what health care they would or wouldn't want if they become unable to make or communicate their treatment preferences in the future.

It also helps to ensure a person’s loved ones and health providers know what matters most to them and respects their treatment preferences.

Advance care planning only comes into effect if decisions are needed about a person’s health care and they are either unable to make decisions themselves or communicate, or a health professional assesses and confirms they are unable to make their own decision.

Advance care planning should start early, while people are still healthy, and before there's an urgent need for decisions to be made where a person may not be able to communicate their choices.

It’s particularly important for people who:

• are older
• have a chronic illness
• have multiple diseases
• have an early cognitive impairment
• are approaching the end of your life
• have specific religious, spiritual, cultural, or values-based wishes and preferences about health care
• don’t have anyone who will be able to act as a substitute decision-maker for you
• have a family where there will be many different views about what should happen
• are concerned about people not respecting your choices and decisions, for example if you have a disability, or if you have communication difficulties.

For more information about the community information sessions phone Far West Local Health District Advance Care Planning Project Officer Michelle Powell, on 0457 217 401.

More information on Advance Care Planning can be found on the NSW Health website: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/patients/acp/Pages/advance-care-planning.aspx and https://www.advancecareplanning.org.au/ .