An advance statement is a written statement that sets down your preferences, wishes, beliefs and values regarding your future care.
The aim is to provide a guide to anyone who might have to make decisions in your best interest if you have lost the ability to make or communicate decisions.
An advance statement can cover any aspect of your future health or social care. This could include:
You can make sure people know about your wishes by talking about them.
By writing your advance statement down, you can help to make things clear to your family, carers and anybody involved in your care.
You can write it with support from relatives, carers, or health and social care professionals.
No. An advance decision (also known as a living will, or advance decision to refuse treatment) is a decision you can make now to refuse specific treatments in the future.
An advance decision is legally binding, as long as it meets certain criteria.
You write an advance statement yourself, as long as you have the mental capacity to make these statements.
Mental capacity is the ability to make decisions. Sometimes, people do not have mental capacity. This can be for a number of reasons, including illness.
No, an advance statement is not legally binding, but anyone who's making decisions about your care must take it into account.
An advance statement lets everyone involved in your care know about your wishes, feelings and preferences if you're not able to tell them.
You do not have to sign an advance statement, but your signature makes it clear that it is your wishes that have been written down.
You have the final say in who sees it. Keep it somewhere safe, and tell people where it is, in case they need to find it in the future.
You can keep a copy in your medical notes.
Dying Matters has information on talking about dying. This includes ideas for starting the conversation, letting people know your wishes, and things to think about.
Page last reviewed: 19 September 2023
Next review due: 19 September 2026