Ms Briony Johnston1
1University Of Technology Sydney, Australia
Purpose: This presentation will identify how a more collaborative approach to Advance Personal Planning (APP) can improve connections between an individual, their care team, and those close to them, providing opportunities for deeper understanding and connection.
Nature and Scope of Topic: APP allows people to plan ahead for future financial, health and personal matters, ensuring their preferences are known during periods of incapacity or following death. However, uptake of APP mechanisms has been low and variable, leading to considerations about how current processes can be improved. Increased collaboration may be one such development.
Issue or Problem Under Consideration: While APP can involve formal documentation, the need for a communicative, multi-step and collaborative approach is vital. By encouraging discussion with doctors, lawyers and other members of an individual’s care team, as well as members of their family and those closest to them, it provides an opportunity for deeper connection and better awareness of a person’s wishes and preferences for the future. This is especially important when appointing decision-makers, such as an Enduring Power of Attorney or Enduring Guardian, who are called upon to make significant decisions regarding an individual’s finances, property, health and personal circumstances.
Outcome or Conclusion Reached: This presentation will explore how a more collaborative approach to APP allows individuals to both assemble and instruct their immediate, supportive community prior to a period of incapacity or following death. An individual’s wishes and preferences are known on a personal, connecting level as well from a formally recorded, medico-legal perspective.
Biography:
Ms Briony Johnston is in the second year of her PhD with the Faculty of Law at The University of Technology Sydney. Her candidature is supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant, ‘Taking Action: Increasing Advance Personal Planning by Older Adults’.
Ms Johnston’s thesis, ‘An Empirical Investigation of Lawyers’ and Clients’ Perspectives and Experiences in Engaging with Advance Personal Planning’ aims to discover how lawyers are currently engaging older adults in the process of Advance Personal Planning, through both quantitative and qualitative methods. By understanding how accessible the current processes are for older adults, and whether there are any opportunities for improvement in this area, we can identify how meaningful participation of older adults could be increased. Ms Johnston has over six years’ experience in research roles, with a particular interest in the intersections between law, medicine and healthy ageing.