The Anticipated Life and Care Project (PAVS) and its supports
Organisation(s): UNESSA
Website: http://unessa.be/Homepage/Projets/PSPA-(1)/PSPA-Documentation.aspx
Available language(s): French
Date of development: 2021
Type of tool: Digital | Paper format | videos
Purpose: Awareness rising / information – Form / template – Self-reflection tools
Topic(s) covered: what kind of choices you can make in advance, if and how to discuss this topic with your beloved ones
Overview
The Anticipated Life and Care Project (PAVS) was developed by UNESSA, the federation of reception, accompaniment, help and care for people. The PAVS takes up the essence of the Personalized Anticipatory Care Project (PSPA) created by Pallium, thePalliative Care Platform of Walloon Brabant. The PSPA is a “process by which a person, in consultation with his or herrelatives and carers, formulates in advance objectives and choices about how he or she would like to be cared for if he or she were no longer able to take care of them. This process can lead to advance directives. The PAVS contains the essential information of the therapeutic project on one double-sided page. This sheet is intended to be a tool for transmitting information from one institution to another, from one carecentre to another. In all circumstances, and in the event that the resident is unable to express him/herself, this tool allows the nursing staff to ensure a follow-up, among other things, respectful ofhis/her convictions. These tools should not be considered as administrative documents sensu stricto, they should allow for a trialogue between the patient, his relatives and his carers. A situation is never set in stone, it evolves, a current wish may change in the future, which is why it is important for people who have completed the PAVS to know that they can modify or even delete it at any time.In an ideal world, everyone – who wants to make their wishes and values known in case they are no longer able to express them – should complete a PSPA or a PAVS and not wait until they are in hospital to think about it, as hospital isnot the ideal place to do this.
Reasons for selecting the practice and impact
The different materials created around the PAVS are intended to raise awareness, inform, disseminate the philosophy of end-of-life support, and help people on the importance of advance care planning (ACP). The materials are:
‣ an animated video that can be shown in a reception hall of an institution, during an awareness-raising session with an audience of elderly people, workers, families, people living in an institution, etc;
‣information flyers for beneficiaries and professionals
‣ an information poster;
‣Didactic sheets for professionals accompanying people in the reflection on their end-of-life wishes and the completion of the PSPA and/or PAVS. These sheets explain legislation or therapies in a simple and concise manner. Their themesare by no means exhaustive. The sheets do not replace the dialogue with the doctor and health professionals.
Impact:
The Anticipatory Life and Care Project and its tools have been presented at various meetings: internal UNESSAworking groups and information sessions, webinars and presentation conferences (hospital sector, mental health, nursing homes, disability, health ministry). These events were attended by doctors, directors of institutions, nurses,social workers, volunteers, palliative care platforms,The aim of these presentations was to inform, raise awareness and encourage the above-mentioned stakeholders to implement the philosophy of advance care planning and support by providing them with tools to achieve these objectives. At present, it is not possibleto say how many institutions or individuals have already completed their end-of-life wishes.
Contacts and additional information
Transferability
The PAVS is a document that may be of interest to the European project because it contains on one double-sided page the essential elements that health professionals must have at their disposal to take care of a person who is nolonger capable of expressing his or her wishes, in order to respect the person’s wishes as far as possible. The different sections (administrative data; care plan; end-of-life wishes; wishes for after death) can inspire the HMH project. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware that the PAVS was designed for Belgium, where the regulatory framework for the end of life is governed by various laws dating from 2002 (patient rights, palliative care, euthanasia). It is therefore not possible to take up the PAVS as such, as it needs to be adapted to the different European national contexts. But it canbe a source of inspiration.
Additional information
The PAVS is the result of a co-construction carried out with field actors from the different health and support sectors ofUnessa: general hospitals, elderly, disability, mental health. It has already been implemented in various places and thefeedback is extremely positive. The PAVS fills a real gap in the care of the beneficiary. It allows to highlight the wishes ofthe person and to consider them in the most holistic way possible. Nevertheless, one should always be cautious with this type of document, which can “freeze” the person at a given moment. This is why we strongly encourage the beneficiary to use this tool with vigilance and to fill in this type of document in dialogue with his/her relatives and carers sothat, when the day comes when his/her wishes have to be taken into account, the word of the beneficiary – recorded in the PAVS – can be carried by those who have been close to him/her and who have accompanied him/her in his/herreflection on his/her end-of- life wishes.
Contacts for further information:
info@unessa.be
therese.hebbelinck@unessa.be