ADVANCE CARE PLANNING APP
Health can change without warning. That’s why we created an Advance Care Planning App.
Advance Care Planning Ontario provides information and tools to help individuals and families have important conversations about future health care decisions. The App was designed for use by clinicians, patients and their substitute decision-maker to help prepare for future healthcare decisions.
Find everything you need to know about Health Care Consent, Advance Care Planning, Goals of Care Discussions, and Substitute Decision Makers in Ontario.


Learn terminology & definitions
Advance care planning (ACP) The purpose of ACP is to prepare people and their SDM(s) for decision-making in the future. While ACP can be for healthy people, it gets more and more important as people develop serious and progressive illness.
Goals of care discussions (GOCD) and consent happen when treatment or care decisions are needed. Good ACP helps people and their SDMs be prepared to make decisions.
Advance Care Planning
Goals of Care Discussion
Consent for
Treatment or
Care
Advance Care Planning
- Conversations to confirm a person's substitute decision-maker (SDM) and prepare that SDM for future decision-making
- Focus on values and what's important to the person
- ACP is not consent for future care
Goals of Care Discussion
- Discussions in the context of a current illness about a person's values & goals leading up to a treatment or care decision
- Aim is to align available treatment options with a person's goals
Consent for Treatment or Care
- Conversation a healthcare provider must have with a person or their SDM prior to initiation of any treatment or personal care
- SDM only acts when the person lacks capacity for that decision
Identify the right conversation for each person
Meet Althea, Bob, Tran, Jacob and Priya
These examples will be used throughout the website.
Althea is a 72-year-old healthy woman. She is not married. Her mother is 96 years old and Althea has two sisters.
Bob is a 76-year-old man with heart failure. Bob’s wife died six years ago and he has three children.
Tran is a 48 year old woman who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is married and has two children.
Jacob is a 9 year old boy with severe neurologic impairment. Jacob lives with his parents and younger sister.
Priya has Alzheimer dementia. Her husband died 3 years ago. She has 3 daughters and lives with her eldest daughter Asha.
Learn more about...
Substitute Decision-Making
- How to identify SDM(s)
- How to appoint Attorney for Personal Care
- About substitute decision making
- What makes a good SDM
- What is capacity
Resources
- General resources
- Primary care resources
- Long term care resources
- Acute care resources
- Specialist care resources
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario gratefully acknowledges the support of the government of Ontario in the creation of Advance Care Planning resources