Advance Care Planning NZ: Records, PDFs and Directives

What this guide covers

This guide is written as a practical reference for New Zealand families organizing private records before they become urgent. It focuses on the details that make a plan understandable to someone who may need to act quickly and carefully.

• Legacy Toolkit does not create medical directions or replace clinical advice.
• Advance care planning is a process of thinking, talking, writing down, sharing, and reviewing future care wishes.
• The vault can keep healthcare wishes, document locations, and trusted contacts together.
• My Advance Care Plan templates, PDFs, and booklets can be recorded with source, status, copies, sharing, and review notes.
• Completed plans should be shared with the right people and local upload or storage processes can vary by district.

Start with what advance care planning means

In New Zealand guidance, advance care planning is described as a process of thinking and talking about values, goals, and preferences for current and future healthcare. It can include end-of-life care wishes, but the value is in the conversations, the written plan, sharing, and regular review.

• Values, goals, current and future healthcare preferences, and end-of-life care wishes
• Family, whānau, friends, GP, specialists, healthcare team, EPOA, and trusted support contacts
• Plan source, template or PDF status, copy holders, sharing notes, and review reminders

Follow the five-step planning process

MyACP and Healthify describe the core steps as thinking, talking, planning or writing, sharing, and reviewing. Legacy Toolkit is not the clinical plan; it is the private map of what exists, which source was used, who has seen it, and when the record should be reviewed.

• Thinking notes about values, treatment preferences, and who should be involved
• Talking notes for whānau, friends, doctors, specialists, and health care teams
• Planning, sharing, and reviewing status for the official plan, PDF, or booklet

Use the right source for the job

If you need the official advance care plan template or PDF, start with MyACP. If you need advance directive or living will guidance, check HDC, the Code, CAB, or qualified advice. If you need to store, share, review, and explain the completed record later, Legacy Toolkit can keep the source, copy-holder notes, contacts, and review dates together.

• Official plan, guide booklet, PDF, and local upload process: use MyACP and local health contacts
• Advance directive, living will, capacity, consent, or EPOA authority questions: use official guidance or qualified advice
• Private recordkeeping, document locations, copy holders, trusted access, and review reminders: use Legacy Toolkit

Use MyACP templates, PDFs, and guide booklets as source documents

Searches for advance care plan template NZ, advance care plan PDF, My Advance Care Plan NZ, and ACP NZ usually need MyACP resources first. These include the booklet-format My advance care plan and guide, the fillable My advance care plan PDF template, Whenua ki te whenua, Tōfā Fetāla’i, and Easy Read resources. Store which resource you used, not a vague note that a plan exists.

• Source link, PDF, booklet, hard-copy, or completed-plan location
• Blank, draft, completed, printed, shared, reviewed, or signed and dated status where relevant
• Questions for healthcare teams, EPOA contacts, family, whānau, or qualified advisors

Record what should be included in the plan

Healthify says an advance care plan may include who you are, what matters to you, current health context, spiritual and emotional needs, decision preferences, preferred place of care, organ donation, funeral wishes, important papers, EPOA details, and any advance directive. Keep those items as structured record notes so the plan is explainable later.

• Care priorities, decision preferences, spiritual or cultural needs, and communication preferences
• Preferred care locations such as home, hospice, aged care, or hospital where the official plan asks for them
• Important papers, EPOA details, advance directive notes, funeral wishes, and copy-holder records

Record advance directive and living will context carefully

Advance directive NZ, advance directive form NZ, living will NZ, living will template NZ, and health care directive searches can involve treatment preferences and future healthcare choices. In New Zealand, use advance directive for a future choice about a specific healthcare procedure that is intended to apply if the person cannot consent at the time. An advance directive can be written or oral, and may be part of an advance care plan or a standalone note; writing, signing, and dating it can help clinicians assess context. EPOA authority is separate and should be checked through official guidance or qualified advice.

• Clear labels for advance care plan notes, advance directives, EPOA documents, and supporting notes
• Document locations for any advance directive or related healthcare record
• Attorney contact details kept separate from the EPA/EPOA document location and activation notes
• Clinical, legal, capacity, activation, and treatment-decision questions to take to qualified people

Record sharing, upload, and copy-holder details

MyACP says completed plans should be shared with key family or whānau, a GP, the health care team, and an EPOA if one exists. It also says each area in Aotearoa has a different process for uploading a completed plan. Use the local district process for the plan itself, then keep a record of who has a copy and who needs to be told when it changes.

• Family, whānau, GP, healthcare team, EPOA, and trusted support copy-holder notes
• Local upload or storage contact, submitted date, and unresolved follow-up notes
• Review reminders and update notes after health, care, family, or contact changes

Keep emergency and medical context beside the plan

A health care directive or advance care plan is easier to use when the practical health record is nearby. Keep GP details, emergency contacts, NHI notes, medication lists, allergies, conditions, hospital or hospice contacts, and document locations together without exposing the full private vault by default.

• Emergency contacts, GP, specialist, pharmacy, aged care, hospice, and hospital notes
• Medication, allergy, condition, NHI, insurance, and medical-record references where appropriate
• Selected trusted access for family, whānau, EPOA contacts, and support people

Make the plan findable without oversharing

The right people should know that the plan exists and where to find the relevant section. With consent, MyACP says an advance care plan should be accessible to the healthcare team and whānau, and that copies should be shared with the GP and other regular health professionals. That does not mean the full private vault should be shared. Use selected trusted access, note who has a copy, and review the plan when circumstances change and at least annually.

• Selected access for family, EPOA, advisors, and trusted support people
• Notes about who has a copy and who should be updated after changes
• Exportable summaries for healthcare or family conversations when needed

Common New Zealand questions

How this fits in Legacy Toolkit

Use this guide as a working checklist inside the desktop vault. Create or review the relevant information profile sections, attach files in the document vault, add reminders where information can go stale, and prepare trusted access without sharing the whole vault by default.

The goal is not to turn a private life into a public folder. The goal is to keep the plan legible, current, and controlled so the right person can find the right information without receiving the whole vault by default.

• Profile sections keep the plan readable instead of turning it into a loose notes file.
• Document attachments keep proof beside the account, asset, policy, or instruction it supports.
• Trusted access lets you prepare a handoff without exposing the full vault by default.

Advance care planning NZ record checklist

Treat this as a first pass, not a final legal packet. Review the items, fill in what is missing, and return to the plan whenever a provider, account, advisor, family role, or document changes.

• Record advance care plan location, template or PDF source, copy notes, local upload notes, and review reminders.
• List healthcare provider, family, whānau, EPOA, advisor, and trusted contact details.
• Attach advance directive, living will, healthcare, care, and personal-wishes notes where relevant.
• Label whether each advance care plan template, booklet, PDF, or note is blank, draft, complete, printed, shared, reviewed, or signed and dated where relevant.
• Connect healthcare wishes to EPOA, end-of-life, emergency, and document records.
• Share selected sections with the right trusted people and review access after changes.

New Zealand references

These links are included for context. Legacy Toolkit helps organise records and does not replace legal, financial, tax, medical, or court advice.

• Advance care planning: What is advance care planning?
• Advance care planning: Your plan
• Advance care planning: Local contacts
• Advance care planning: Questions and answers
• Advance care planning: Order resources
• Healthify: Advance care planning
• Citizens Advice Bureau: Future healthcare and end-of-life wishes
• Citizens Advice Bureau: Living will or advance directive
• Health and Disability Commissioner: Advance directives and enduring powers of attorney
• Health and Disability Commissioner: Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights
• Govt.nz: Personal care and welfare enduring power of attorney