Planning for the future

Preferences for care 

Planning ahead can be difficult, but once you have started the conversation you may find it easier to talk about your feelings and preferences while you are well. 

It can also help your family feel at peace with decisions they might one day need to make, knowing that it was what you wanted.

Over three quarters of people who had talked to a family member about their health care wishes found it helped them make decisions about their care.

You may like to start planning for the future by talking to your treatment team about the care that you might want if your disease progresses. Your treatment team are the experts in your specific metastatic breast cancer and can recommend a type of care that is tailored to your needs. 

One of the ways people can access specialised support is through palliative care, yet there is often misunderstanding around what palliative care can offer because it can be associated with end of life care. When told what palliative care services can actually provide, many people are much more comfortable with the idea.

Palliative care means that you, your family and carers can get practical, emotional and physical support.

Advance care planning 

After you’ve thought about the care that you want, you might like to consider writing down your wishes in an advance care plan.

Thinking about and letting other people know about your preferences for your care towards the end of your life is called 'advance care planning’. This is a process to help you plan and write down your future health care preferences.

Advance care planning can include legal documents such as an: 

For further information and documents about advance care planning that apply in your state or territory, go to Advance Care Planning Australia.

Once you have an advance care plan, you can help make your views more easily available by uploading it to your My Health Record, where it will be available to health care providers when it is needed.