Developing Strategies to Improve Advance Care Planning in Long Term Care Homes: Giving Voice to Residents and Their Family Members

Table 4

Suggested questions/phrases to help start conversations about ACP with residents and family members.

Questions/phrases for residents	Questions/phrases for family members/substitute decision makers
(1) “Have you thought about what you would like in the last phase of your life or what would be the most important for you during that time?”	(1) “We noticed that your mom’s condition is slowly deteriorating/acutely deteriorating [or whatever the case may be…]”
(2) “There is a change we are seeing and we need to have these conversations so we are clear that we are all on the same page as to what treatment direction we will be taking.”	(2) “There is a change we are seeing and we need to have these conversations so we are clear that we are all on the same page as to what treatment direction we will be taking.”
(3) “We need to talk about the treatment direction and goals.”	(3) “We need to talk about the treatment direction and goals.”
	(4) “Has your mom or dad ever talked to you about what their wishes have been?”
	(5) “What is in the best interest of the resident….”