An advance care directive is the legal document in which you record your future medical treatment preferences in Victoria, so they can be followed if you ever lose the ability to speak for yourself. It is not a will and it does not deal with money. It deals with the health care you would, or would not, want. This guide explains the two types, who can make one, how to sign and witness it, when doctors must follow it, and how it sits alongside the rest of your planning for later life.
TL;DR
- In Victoria, an advance care directive is the only legally recognised document for recording your medical treatment preferences. Other written notes can guide your family, but they do not carry the same legal force.
- You can make an instructional directive (binding consent or refusal of specific treatments), a values directive (your values and preferences, to guide a decision-maker), or both.
- It only applies when you cannot make or communicate your own decisions. Until then, you decide.
- Use the official Victorian form, have it witnessed in person, share copies with your doctors and family, and review it every two years or when your circumstances change.
Table of Contents
- Advance care planning and an advance care directive: the difference
- The two types of directive
- Who can make one
- How to make a Victorian advance care directive
- When does it take effect, and must doctors follow it?
- Review, share and store it
- If you move or travel interstate
- Where a directive fits with your estate and retirement planning
- Our perspective
- How Amber Wealth can help
- FAQ
- Sources
Advance care planning and an advance care directive: the difference
The two terms are often used as if they mean the same thing. They do not.
Advance care planning is the ongoing process. The Victorian Department of Health describes it as verbal and written communication about your values, beliefs and preferences for future medical care. It includes the conversations you have with your partner, your children, your GP and the people you trust to speak for you.
An advance care directive is the written, legal outcome of that process. When people search for an "advance care plan" in Victoria, the document they usually need is the directive, because it is the one Victorian law recognises. A letter to your family, a note in your diary or a plan kept by a hospital may help people understand you, but on their own they are not a directive.
The Department of Health says advance care planning puts the person at the centre of care and has been shown to improve the quality of end-of-life care. That is the practical case for doing it: the people who love you are not left guessing during the worst week of their lives.
The two types of directive
Under the Victorian forms, you can make a directive that includes an instructional directive, a values directive, or both.
Instructional directive
This is a binding statement in which you consent to, or refuse, specific medical treatments in the future. It is the part with direct legal force. Examples of the kind of thing people address include life-sustaining treatment, or whether they would accept a particular intervention if they had a severe, irreversible condition. Be as clear as you can about the situation you are describing, because a vague refusal is harder for clinicians to apply.
Values directive
This sets out your views, values and preferences: what makes life meaningful to you, what outcomes you would find unacceptable, where you would like to be cared for. It does not tell clinicians to do or not do a specific treatment. Instead, it guides a substitute decision-maker when you have lost capacity and a decision needs to be made.
Which should you choose?
Many people complete both. The instructional part gives certainty on the few treatments you feel strongly about. The values part covers everything you cannot predict, which is most things. If you only write a values statement, your decision-maker has room to interpret. If you only write instructions, nobody has guidance for situations you did not foresee.
| Instructional directive | Values directive | |
|---|---|---|
| What it records | Consent to, or refusal of, specific treatments | Your values, views and preferences |
| Legal effect | Binding on health practitioners if valid and the treatment is medically appropriate | Guides your substitute decision-maker |
| Best for | Treatments you have a firm view on | Everything else, including unforeseen situations |
| Can be combined | Yes | Yes |
Who can make one
The official form instructions say that an adult, or a person under 18 with sufficient decision-making capacity, can make a Victorian directive, provided they act voluntarily and understand the nature and effect of their decisions.
Three points follow from that:
- Capacity is the test, not age or diagnosis. Someone with early dementia may still have capacity to make a directive, which is why timing matters. Doing it sooner leaves less to argue about later.
- It must be your own decision. If anyone is pressuring you, the directive is at risk of being challenged. Talk to your doctor privately if you feel pushed.
- You need to understand what you are signing. A GP or other health professional can talk you through realistic scenarios, which also helps you write instructions that clinicians can apply.
How to make a Victorian advance care directive
- Think and talk first. Decide what matters to you. Speak with your family and the person you would trust to make medical decisions for you.
- See your GP or another health professional. They can explain likely treatments for any conditions you have. This step is not a legal requirement for everyone, but it makes your directive far more useful.
- Use the official form. The Department of Health publishes the Victorian advance care directive forms and a separate set of instructions for completing the adult form. Read the instructions before you start.
- Sign and have it witnessed. Directives can be signed electronically, but they cannot be witnessed over an audio-visual link. Witnessing must be done in person. The form instructions list who may witness and what they must confirm, so follow them exactly, because a directive that is not properly witnessed may not be valid.
- Share it. Give copies to your medical treatment decision-maker (if you have appointed one), your family, your GP and any specialists.
- Store it where it can be found. See the next section.
When does it take effect, and must doctors follow it?
Your directive takes effect only when you lack the decision-making capacity to make or communicate medical decisions. While you can decide for yourself, your current wishes always come first, even if they differ from what you wrote earlier.
When it does apply, health practitioners must follow a valid instructional directive as if you had consented to or refused the treatment yourself, provided the treatment is medically appropriate. That last condition matters. A directive lets you refuse treatment; it does not oblige a doctor to provide a treatment that is not clinically appropriate.
The legal framework is the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016 (Vic), which enshrines directives and sets out obligations for practitioners caring for people who lack capacity. If a situation arises that your directive does not cover, the values part and your substitute decision-maker become important, which is why one without the other leaves gaps.
Review, share and store it
The Victorian guidance is to review your directive every two years or sooner when your circumstances change. Good prompts include a new diagnosis, the death of a person you named, a separation, or a change in how you feel about treatment.
For storage, you can upload your directive to My Health Record. The Australian Government notes that doing so means treating doctors can access your preferences if they are needed. A document in a bedside drawer does nothing if the ambulance goes to a hospital that has never heard of it.
A simple routine works well:
- Keep the signed original somewhere your family knows about.
- Give your GP a copy and ask them to place it in your file.
- Upload it to My Health Record.
- Tell your decision-maker and family where everything is.
- Diarise the two-year review.
If you move or travel interstate
Directive laws and formal requirements differ across Australian states and territories. The National Framework for Advance Care Planning Documents acknowledges some ambiguity around the legal requirements for giving effect to a directive made in another jurisdiction.
In practice, this means a Victorian directive is the right document while you live in Victoria, but if you move to another state, for instance in retirement, you should check the local rules and consider making a new one on that state's form. Do not assume your existing document will be treated identically. Clinicians will usually still read it as evidence of your wishes, which is worth having, but you want certainty rather than a best guess.
Where a directive fits with your estate and retirement planning
A directive covers medical treatment only. It does not appoint someone to manage your money, it does not distribute your assets, and it does not replace a will. Retirees who tidy up one document often leave the others untouched, which creates the gaps that cause family disputes.
A sensible set of documents for later life usually looks like this:
- A will, setting out who receives your assets.
- Powers of attorney and decision-maker appointments, so someone you trust can act on financial and health matters if you cannot. Our state-by-state guide to enduring power of attorney explains how these differ across Australia.
- An advance care directive, recording your treatment preferences.
- Up-to-date beneficiary nominations on your super and insurance. Our estate planning checklist for retirees covers this.
The documents should agree with each other. If your directive says you would prefer to be cared for at home, your finances need to make that realistic. If you are working toward retirement, our retirement planning checklist shows where these legal documents sit among the financial steps.
Our perspective
We work with pre-retirees and retirees across Melbourne and Bayside, and the pattern is consistent. People spend years getting their super, income streams and Age Pension position right, and then leave the question of who decides if they cannot, and on what basis, to chance.
We are financial planners, not clinicians or lawyers, and we do not draft your directive. What we do see is that the conversation about medical wishes tends to unlock the conversation about everything else. Once a couple has talked honestly about what they would want in a serious illness, questions about care costs, who should hold which authority, and whether the family home should be kept or sold become much easier to answer. Advice is only useful when it is based on your actual situation, not a template, and the same is true of a directive: a generic one is worth less than one that reflects what you really think.
Our practical advice is to do the legal paperwork and the financial plan together, and to revisit both at the same review. Life changes, and so should the documents.
— Adam
How Amber Wealth can help
We do not provide legal or medical advice, so we will not complete your directive for you. What we can do is make sure the financial side of your later years matches your wishes. Our estate planning advice looks at wills, beneficiaries and the structures around your assets, and our retirement planning service builds the income and care funding strategy those decisions depend on. If you would like to talk it through, start at amberwealth.com.au.
FAQ
Is an advance care plan the same as an advance care directive in Victoria?
No. Advance care planning is the ongoing process of thinking and talking about your future care. The directive is the legal document that comes out of it, and in Victoria it is the only legally recognised document for recording medical treatment preferences. Other notes can still help your family understand you.
Does my advance care directive have to be witnessed in person?
Yes. You can sign a Victorian directive electronically, but witnessing cannot be done over an audio-visual link. The witness must be physically present. Check the form instructions for who is eligible to witness before you book a time.
When can doctors act on my directive?
Only when you cannot make or communicate your own decisions. Then practitioners must follow a valid instructional directive as if you had decided yourself, as long as the treatment is medically appropriate. Until that point, your current wishes override the document.
How often should I update it?
The official guidance is to review it every two years, and sooner if your health, relationships or views change. Share any updated version with your GP, family and decision-maker, and replace the copy on My Health Record so the old one is not what clinicians find.
Will my Victorian directive work if I move interstate?
Not necessarily. State and territory rules differ, and the national framework recognises some uncertainty about directives made in another jurisdiction. If you relocate, check the local requirements and consider making a new directive on that state's form.
Sources
- Advance care planning overview, Department of Health Victoria
- Advance care planning forms, Department of Health Victoria
- Instructions for completing the advance care directive for adults
- Advance care directive, Australian Government Department of Health
- National framework for advance care planning documents
Recommended
- Estate Planning Advice
- Enduring power of attorney: your state-by-state guide
- Retirees' Estate Planning: Check Beneficiaries, Enduring POA, Pension
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here. General Advice Warning Disclaimer: The information on this website is general information only and is not intended to be a recommendation. We strongly recommend you seek advice from your financial adviser as to whether this information is appropriate to your needs & financial situation.