About Me

Hi! My name is Isabelle Leslie. I am 26 years old and have been working with Life and Death Matters for 3 years. I live on Vancouver Island in British Columia. I love gardening, being outside no matter the weather, and knitting! I’ll admit, I never really expected to be working in palliative care education – I did get a degree in healthcare, but it was in Kinesiology! But, I really enjoy my work and have learnt so much about holistic palliative care, and how important it is!

My Idea

An idea has been percolating in my head for a year or so now – to host an Advance Care Planning (ACP) Day, where I invite my family, friends, and local community to work on creating their own Advance Care Plan.

“Why?” I hear you ask. “You’re so young!”

That is true! But, as you all probably know, anyone can die at anytime. I personally loved the image for ACP Day in 2022:

It reminds me of Loony Toons and Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner, but also invokes the idea that literally anything can happen at any time. I grew up on the West Coast, so I have been well trained on the danger of earthquakes and how we are supposedly ‘overdue’ for The Big One. The idea of being prepared for the worst to happen in a moment’s notice is normal for me! That is why it’s interesting to me that so many people haven’t actually prepared for their own end-of-life.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with ACP, it is the process where you consider the care you would want if you were no longer able to make your own care decisions. At my age, this could happen, for example, if I were involved in a car accident and suffered a severe brain injury. As I get older, I might develop a life-limiting illness that would prevent me from making or communicating my care decisions.

I am also now at the age where I am seeing my grandparent’s generation decline and die, and I can see how difficult it is for their family members when their care choices have not been discussed and relevant documents are not signed!

And so, in part because of my work with Life and Death Matters, and because I have witnessed the difficulties when a person declines without an advanced care plan, I decided to act. Thus far, I have done some research and am begining to flesh out a plan for a gathering. Obviously, I began my research by searching for “Advance Care Planning British Columbia” (because I live in British Columbia).

I also wanted to include information about Power of Attorney and Substitute Decision Makers. I know from the LDM resources and my own life experiences that it is very important to have conversations about these topics. So, I also researched them. I eventually decided to break ACP down into different sections that would be more easily digestible:

• ACP planning
• Power of Attorney
• Wills
• After death

This way, people will be able to form a general understanding of each topic, then decide which to focus on for the day. You can find a list of documents and websites I used as resources at the end of this post.

For the Gathering Itself?

I was thinking of having an informal gathering, where people could come and go, where I’d have information and resources ready, and where people could discuss ideas with each other. Perhaps I’ll offer cookies, donuts, as well as hot and cold beverages to help entice people to come.

Although I call this an ACP Day, I know that many of the ACP questions require deep thought and time to formulate an answer. With that understanding I realize that this ACP event may be more of an ‘information gathering’ event than a ‘get it done’ event. My hope is that people will come and learn that it does not need to be scary to think about ACP, and then complete one on their own time!

I will set out four stations to cover the basic building blocks of ACP that I mentioned above: ACP, Power of Attorney, Wills, and After Death. Each station will have a brief overview of what each topic is, why it is important, specifics, and names of official documents to fill out to have decisions recognized by the law (if wanted).

It is important to remember that even if you have thought about ACP and what you might want, it doesn’t mean anything unless its written down! You have to make sure you have written down your decisions and have made sure they are easily accessible, and FINDABLE to others. For example, I still don’t know where my parent’s wills are, even though I have talked about this ACP event with them! Consider putting important documents together and telling people where to find them in emergencies.

If I could say one thing to people who haven’t done any ACP, I would say, “You need to document the care decisions you want – get it on paper or in an electronic document – and share it with the people who will be supporting you.” I would stress the point that others will need to know how you want to be treated when you are unable to communicate it yourself.

Resources I used

I have listed the websites and documents I am using to setup my Advance Care Planning Day. Many contain info with regards to British Columbia laws, but I hope that you still find them useful. If you have other resources that have been helpful, please share them in the comments!

Dying with Dignity Canada

Advance Care Planning Canada ‘Speak up Workbook’

Nidus: Nidus is a BC non-profit society. They provide free information to help British Columbians plan for the future, support self-determination, and provide equitable access to essential resources and benefits.

Government of British Columbia: Advance Care Planning. I took a lot of information from the ‘My Voice – Advance Care Planning Guide’ available though here. It defines terms simply, and tells you the specific forms required to make your choices legal in the eyes of the law!

Wills and Estate Planning (For British Columbia)

Government of Canada: Powers of Attorney

Finally, here is the planning document that I have used to plan my own ACP Day. Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas for improvements! (You may need to scroll down to click the ‘download’ button)