Advance Directives

This page on the Ontario Government site offers information on making choices about personal care including treatment and services, food, living arrangements and housing, clothing, hygiene and safety. There is also a downloadable wallet card on which seniors can have important information and contacts.

The Substitute Decision Act explains aspects of end of life decision-making. This guide summarizes the main points of the Act. It should not be used as a substitute for the Act itself.

This booklet provides information on Powers of Attorney, including Continuing Powers of Attorney for Property, and Power of Attorney for Personal Care. Included in the booklet are instructions on how to fill out legal forms to give others your Powers of Attorney.

This document provides legal information for elderly people about informed consent, mental capacity and establishing a substitute decision making process for elders.

A discussion paper that explains the basics of the legislation in Ontario that governs mental capacity and decision making: the Substitute Decisions Act, the Health Care Consent Act, and the Mental Health Act.

This resource provides you with a printable, wallet-sized document detailing your Substitute Decision-Maker (SDM) or Power of Attorney consent to treatment information.

This website provides information and support for making decisions about end-of-life care. Topics include information on advance care planning, making an advance care plan, and choosing a substitute decision maker. 

This website provides information about Power of Attorney in Ontario. A Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives someone else permission to act on your half. This includes the ability to make decisions about your health care.

This webpage lists resources that help to explain legal aspects of access to personal health information, and legal issues related to end-of-life care.

This website provides information about creating a living will and establishing a power of attorney. It includes links to related documents.

The Advance Care Planning DVD provides an introduction to the basic concepts of advance care planning. It does so by using a story approach highlighting common health care scenarios and their impact on individuals, families and health care professionals.

The book offers a simple and effective framework for leaving caretakers concrete, unambiguous, and legally binding instructions about your wishes for your last days. It includes a Compassionate Care Protocol to ensure that these wishes are met.

Written by Dr. Joanne Lynn and a team of experts, this book provides equal measures of practical information and wise counsel. Readers will learn what decisions they will need to face, what choices are available to them, where to look for help, how to ease pain and other symptoms, what to expect with specific diseases, how the health-care system operates, and how the entire experience affects dying persons, their families, and their friends. This book is especially addressed to all those who wish to approach the final years of life with greater awareness of what to expect and greater confidence about how to make the end of their lives a time of growth, comfort, and meaningful reflection.

One of the few things in life that’s certain is death—and here’s a realistic, practical, and even humorous book about preparing for it. From hospice, independence issues, relations with caregivers to writing your wishes and preplanning, choosing executors and dealing with family relationships, the book covers it all.

This is a complete guide to everything you need to know emotionally, spiritually, and practically, to prepare for the end of life. No matter your age or current health, preparing for the inevitable when you are still fully in control of your faculties ensures that you’ll be in a far better position to enjoy the time you have left.

Five Wishes is an advance directive created by the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity in the United States. It has been described as the "first living will with a heart and soul”. The document is a combination of a living will and health care power of attorney but it also addresses other important aspects which traditionally were not included. The document addresses matters of medical and personal care as well as emotional and spiritual needs of patients. It is intended to help patients and their families to plan ahead and to cope with serious illness and its consequences.