How to Complete the Advance Health Directive Form in Western Australia

The Form Looks Simple — It Isn't

Western Australia's statutory Advance Health Directive (AHD) form is a free download from HealthyWA. It's the prescribed form under Part 9B of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990. Using another template, online platform, or interstate form can create a validity risk in WA.

The form has six parts. Three are mandatory (Parts 1, 4, and 6). Three are optional (Parts 2, 3, and 5). Missing any mandatory part can invalidate the document. Optional parts should be crossed out if you do not complete them, as instructed. That means the treatment decisions you spent time thinking through have no legal force when they're needed most.

Here's how to work through each part correctly.

Part 1: Your Personal Details (Mandatory)

This is straightforward: your full legal name, date of birth, address, and contact details. Use your name exactly as it appears on your other legal documents (driver's licence, passport, Will). Spelling mismatches between your AHD and your medical records can create delays when hospital staff try to verify the document.

If you've changed your name (through marriage, divorce, or deed poll), include your previous name as well.

Part 2: Your Health Conditions (Optional)

Part 2 asks you to describe any existing health conditions that are relevant to your treatment preferences. For example, if you have a cardiac condition, a progressive neurological disease, or diabetes, noting it here gives clinicians context for interpreting your Part 4 treatment decisions.

If you choose not to complete Part 2, you must cross it out. Draw a single line through the entire section and initial alongside it. This isn't a suggestion — the WA Department of Health's guide explicitly requires it. Leaving the section blank without crossing it out creates ambiguity: did you choose not to complete it, or did you forget? That ambiguity can be used to challenge the document's validity.

Part 3: Your Values and Preferences (Optional)

Part 3 is where you describe what matters to you — your quality-of-life indicators, cultural or religious beliefs that affect treatment, and the outcomes that would make life unacceptable to you.

While Part 3 isn't legally binding in the same way as Part 4's treatment decisions, it plays a critical role. When clinicians face a treatment scenario your Part 4 decisions don't specifically cover, they turn to Part 3 for guidance on what you would have wanted. So does your enduring guardian (if you've appointed one under an EPG) when they need to make decisions on your behalf.

Useful things to include in Part 3:

• Whether you'd want treatment if you could no longer recognise family members
• Whether physical independence matters more to you than life extension
• Whether you have cultural or religious requirements around end-of-life care (specific rites, presence of particular family members, or restrictions on certain procedures)
• Your views on organ and tissue donation

If you choose not to complete Part 3, cross it out entirely and initial.

Part 4: Treatment Decisions (Mandatory — the Heart of the Document)

Part 4 is where the AHD gets its legal teeth. You must record at least one binding treatment decision for the AHD to be valid. The form provides structured options for consenting to or refusing specific categories of treatment.

What Part 4 Asks

The statutory form breaks treatment decisions into categories:

Part 4.1 — Life-sustaining treatment: This covers cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and hydration (tube feeding, IV fluids), and dialysis. For each treatment, you can consent, refuse, or specify conditions under which you'd accept or refuse it.

Part 4.2 — Specific treatments: Space for additional treatment preferences not covered by 4.1. This is where you can address antibiotics, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, or any other treatment relevant to your health situation.

Writing Decisions Clinicians Can Act On

The most common mistake in Part 4 is writing vague instructions. "No heroic measures" means nothing clinically. "Do what's best" delegates the decision back to the doctor — which defeats the purpose of the AHD.

Weak (likely to be disregarded): "I don't want to be kept alive artificially."

Strong (clinically actionable): "I refuse mechanical ventilation and CPR if I have an irreversible condition where there is no reasonable medical prospect of regaining the capacity to breathe independently and make my own decisions."

The difference is specificity. Clinicians need to know:

1. Which treatment you're consenting to or refusing
2. Under what clinical conditions the decision applies
3. Whether the decision is absolute or conditional

Consulting your GP before completing Part 4 is strongly recommended. Your GP can explain the practical implications of each treatment option — what mechanical ventilation actually involves, what the survival rates look like for CPR in your age group, and whether refusing antibiotics in a particular scenario means you're likely choosing palliative care.

Treatments You Cannot Include

Two important limitations under WA law:

• Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) cannot be requested or consented to through an AHD. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 requires the person to maintain active decision-making capacity throughout the entire VAD process.
• Clinically futile treatment cannot be demanded. Your AHD can refuse treatments, but it cannot compel a medical team to provide treatment they consider clinically inappropriate.

Part 5: Additional Information (Optional)

Part 5 provides space for anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other sections. Some people use it to name specific people they want (or don't want) involved in their medical care, to reference their EPG appointment, or to note the location of related documents.

If you choose not to complete Part 5, cross it out and initial.

Part 6: Witnessing and Signatures (Mandatory)

Part 6 is where most self-completed AHDs fail. The witnessing requirements under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990 and the Oaths, Affidavits and Statutory Declarations Act 2005 are strict:

You need two independent adult witnesses. Both must be present at the same time and watch you sign.

At least one witness must be an "authorised witness" under WA law. This includes:

• Currently registered medical practitioners (including GPs)
• Currently registered pharmacists
• Currently registered nurses and midwives
• Lawyers holding a current practising certificate
• Justices of the Peace
• Currently serving police officers
• Several other categories listed in the OASD Act 2005

The operative word is "currently." Retired professionals — even retired doctors or retired lawyers — do not qualify. Our detailed post on who can witness an AHD in WA covers the full list and common disqualification traps.

People who cannot be witnesses:

• You (the maker)
• Someone signing on your behalf (if you're physically unable to sign)
• Any interpreter involved in the process
• Your appointed enduring guardian

The Signing Sequence

1. You sign Part 6 in the presence of both witnesses
2. Both witnesses sign immediately after, confirming they witnessed your signature
3. The authorised witness provides their professional details (registration number, qualification, contact information)

If you're physically unable to sign, another person can sign on your behalf at your direction, in the presence of both witnesses. That directed signer cannot be one of the witnesses.

After Completing the Form

Once all mandatory parts are completed and witnessed:

1. Upload to My Health Record via myGov. Scan the completed form at 300dpi in black and white to keep the file under the upload size limit. Colour scans of multi-page documents often exceed the maximum file size.
2. Give a certified copy to your GP and ask them to add it to your local medical record.
3. Provide copies to your appointed enduring guardian (if you have an EPG) and to close family members.
4. Keep the original in a secure, fireproof location at home, with a note for family explaining where to find it.
5. Carry a wallet card noting that you have an AHD, where it's stored, and who your enduring guardian is.

Getting the Details Right

The Western Australia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes treatment decision worksheets that help you translate your values into the clinical language Part 4 requires, a signing and witnessing checklist to avoid the most common execution errors, and a step-by-step My Health Record upload guide. The kit also covers the Enduring Power of Guardianship form, so you can complete both documents in a single planning session.

Getting the form right the first time means your family never has to argue about whether the document is valid.

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