Planning ahead

Planning ahead involves thinking about your future, and putting things in place so that your choices will be known and acted on if you cannot express these choices yourself at some time in the future. This may happen if you have a sudden accident, become very ill or develop a condition such as dementia that affects your memory and your planning ability. Planning ahead can include issues related to your health care, lifestyle or finances.

The Local Health District has a comprehensive website called My Wishes, which can be found here.

The NSW government has a website - known as either Get in in Black and White or Planning Ahead Tools - that has information about wills, power of attorney, enduring guardianship and advance care planning. It can be found here.

The Start2Talk website has a number of worksheets to help people work through the process of planning ahead. It also has comprehensive information and local links related to planning ahead for all Australian States and Territories. The Start2Talk website can be found here.