AVD – À vrai dire

Organisation(s): Plateforme des soins palliatifs de Namur
Website: https://www.soinspalliatifs.be/asppn-a-vrai-dire.html
Available language(s): French
Date of development 2022
Type of tool: Paper format | Card game
Purpose: Self-reflection tools
Topics covered:
‣ why it is important to think 
in advance about your end-of-life care
‣ what kind of choices you can make in advance
‣ if and how to discuss this topic with your beloved ones

Overview


“A vrai dire” has its origins in “The GoWish Game”, developed by Coda Alliance. The American tool was translated and adapted to Belgian culture and legislation to become the “A vrai dire” tool. It is a card game containing 37 “wish” cards and one “free” card concerning end-of-life wishes. This tool allows for a “third party” approach to end-of-life issues. Itcan be used alone or with others; during the illness or outside the context of the illness; in training/supervision/place ofexchange of words… Its objective is to help the beneficiaries to personally identify their end-of-life desiderata and to initiate/facilitate discussion between 2 or more people, relatives and/or carers


Reasons for selecting the practice and impact

AVD is a tool to tackle the often-difficult topic of the end of life. It seems to us to be a first approach to the essential questions that one must dare to ask oneself when thinking about what one would wish for in the event that one is no longer able to express oneself, and therefore constitutes an interesting prerequisite for the completion of the PAVS. Furthermore, the “card game” format gives an informal aspect to the reflection, which facilitates dialogue between the different protagonists.

Impact: In everyday life, this tool is used by people who are ill or not, carers, informal carers, etc. It is most often presented innursing homes to professionals or to a group of residents, sometimes during “family” evenings in nursing homes. It hasalso been presented in a medical home, a geriatric Glem (i.e. hospital environment), training courses for the elderly sector, to a group of people (citizens) wishing to draw up their advance directives, to teachers, and to students (nurses and carers) from various universities during courses on communication, ethics, etc.
AVD opens the floor, opens the field of possibilities. As previously mentioned, it is a good preliminary to the drafting ofadvance directives. Moreover, it questions practices, develops ethics, gives meaning to the work, and is a mediator between the different stakeholders.

Contacts and additional information

Transferability
AVD seems to be more easily “transferable” than the PAVS at the European level because the 37 “wishes” stated can “globally” be found in the different geographical areas. It is therefore an interesting source of inspiration for HMH. The “game” aspect is particularly important for addressing painful issues. And the tool makes it possible to act as a “third party” so as not to address painful issues head-on with one’s loved ones.

Additional info: It should also be noted that the original tool “The GoWish Game” has been translated into several languages and is used to convey a culture of anticipating end-of-life wishes throughout the world. See https://codaalliance.org/resources-for-all/#flag
Contacts for further information:
info@asppn.be
https://codaalliance.org/resources-for-all/#flag