Your Family Shouldn't Have to Guess What You'd Want
A parent is admitted to Royal Perth Hospital after a stroke. The ward registrar asks who has authority to consent to treatment. Three adult children each say a different thing. Nobody has a valid Advance Health Directive. Nobody holds an Enduring Power of Guardianship. The hospital falls back on the statutory hierarchy — and the first person on the list is an estranged ex-partner the family hasn't spoken to in years.
This happens in Western Australian hospitals every week. Not because families don't care, but because WA's advance care planning system splits authority across three separate legal instruments — and most people only find out which document they're missing during the crisis.
The WA Clinical-Legal Bridge
The Western Australia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit is the bridge between the dry statutory forms on HealthyWA and the clinical reality of how WA hospitals actually make treatment decisions. It translates the legal requirements of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 into a step-by-step completion system that produces documents clinicians can act on without hesitation — so your AHD doesn't get set aside because Part 4 is too vague, and your EPG doesn't get invalidated because a retired JP signed as your authorized witness.
What's Inside
- AHD completion system (Parts 1–6) — walks you through every mandatory and optional section of the statutory form, including the Part 4 Treatment Decision Worksheet that translates your wishes into clinical language WA doctors can act on during an emergency
- EPG appointment and acceptance protocol — the Enduring Guardian Decision Worksheet for who you can appoint, what functions to delegate, how the guardian signs their acceptance with proper witnesses, and what happens when their authority begins and ends
- Signing and Witnessing Checklist — who qualifies under the Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations Act 2005, who is disqualified (retired professionals, your appointed guardian), and a room-ready sequence so both witnesses are present together
- GP Consultation Worksheet — what to bring and what to ask so Part 4 wording is clinically specific, plus how a hospital Goals of Patient Care form interacts with your legal AHD
- My Health Record Upload Checklist — scan settings (black and white, 300 dpi, under 20 MB) and a dated step list for uploading via myGov so the documents are visible to any treating clinician statewide
- Document Storage and Distribution Log — track every certified copy (GP, guardian, specialist, aged care) and the home location of the originals
- Wallet Card — cut-out alert card with your enduring guardian and GP contacts so paramedics know to check My Health Record
- Review and Revocation Checklist — because WA law allows clinicians to "read down" an AHD older than 10 years, a scheduled review cycle and notify-everyone log
- Family Conversation Planner — one sheet per conversation so relatives hear your directions before an emergency
- Post-Death Administration Timeline — death certificates from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages WA, the 14-day probate wait, Landgate transfers, Centrelink reporting, and superannuation death benefit claims
- Quick-start checklist (free PDF) — a one-page action plan covering every critical step, from choosing your enduring guardian to uploading your AHD to My Health Record
Who This Is For
- Adults planning ahead — you're healthy and competent, but you want your treatment preferences documented before a crisis forces decisions onto family members who may not know what you'd want
- Adult children coordinating a parent's care — a parent's health is declining, an aged-care facility is asking for paperwork, and you need to secure legal authority before capacity is lost
- Regional and remote WA families — you live in the Wheatbelt, Goldfields-Esperance, the Kimberley, or another area far from Perth solicitors, and you need to complete everything locally with witnesses available in your community
- Families updating outdated documents — your existing AHD is approaching the 10-year threshold, a new diagnosis has changed your treatment preferences, or your appointed guardian's circumstances have changed
Why the Free Government Forms Aren't Enough
The HealthyWA AHD form and the Office of the Public Advocate EPG form are the correct statutory templates. You should use them. But they come with no execution guidance — and the most common failures aren't about choosing the wrong form. They're about how the form is completed:
- Part 4 of the AHD requires at least one binding treatment decision, but the form doesn't explain how to write one that clinicians can actually follow — vague language like "no artificial prolonging of life" gets set aside because it doesn't address specific interventions
- Unused optional sections (Parts 2 and 3) must be physically crossed out or the form risks invalidity due to the appearance of unauthorized alterations — a rule buried in the regulation, not printed on the form
- Both documents require an authorized witness under the Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations Act 2005, and retired professionals are disqualified — but neither form includes a witness directory or verification procedure
- WA has no centralized register for AHDs or EPGs, so unless you proactively upload to My Health Record, your directive may not be available during the emergency that triggers it
The kit doesn't replace the statutory forms — it wraps them in the procedural guidance that makes the difference between a valid document and an invalidated one.
Your Purchase Is Protected
If the kit doesn't give you a clear, actionable system for completing your WA advance care plan, email [email protected] and we'll make it right.
Start Now
Download the free quick-start checklist to see every step you need to take — then get the full kit for the complete completion system, clinical treatment templates, authorized witness directory, and Goals of Patient Care alignment guide.
Your family deserves to know exactly what you'd want. For less than a single GP copayment, you can make sure they do.