NI Advance Directive Guide — Protect Your Healthcare Wishes

Your Family Has No Legal Authority Over Your Medical Care

In Northern Ireland, there is no health and welfare Lasting Power of Attorney. Your Enduring Power of Attorney covers money and property — nothing else. And your next of kin? Under the common law framework that governs healthcare decisions in NI, they have no statutory right to consent to or refuse treatment on your behalf. When you lose the ability to decide, clinicians decide for you based on their own "best interests" assessment. In acute hospital settings, that means invasive, life-prolonging interventions — even when your family is standing at the bedside saying you would not have wanted them.

This is the gap the NI Healthcare Autonomy Toolkit closes.

Why Generic Templates Fail in Northern Ireland

Free advance directive templates from Compassion in Dying and other national charities are designed for a pan-UK audience. They reference Health and Welfare LPAs that do not exist in Northern Ireland. They cite the Mental Capacity Act 2005 — which applies to England and Wales, not NI. And they use broad, hedging language ("if I have no quality of life") that gives NI clinicians grounds to argue the document does not apply to the specific clinical situation.

Northern Ireland operates under common law for healthcare decisions. The Mental Capacity Act (NI) 2016 received Royal Assent, but its welfare-related provisions remain unimplemented. Under common law, a valid Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment must be more precise than the standard templates provide — it must name specific treatments, describe specific clinical circumstances, and include specific declarations for life-sustaining treatment refusals. Anything less, and the treating team sets it aside.

What the Toolkit Covers

The NI Healthcare Autonomy Toolkit is a 14-chapter guide built exclusively for Northern Ireland's legal and healthcare system — no blending with English, Scottish, or Welsh law. Every fee, every form reference, every institutional pathway is specific to NI.

• Clinically precise ADRT drafting templates — treatment refusal language for CPR, mechanical ventilation, tube feeding, antibiotics, and dialysis that satisfies NI common law requirements, including the mandatory written declaration and witnessing requirements for life-sustaining treatment refusals
• Worked drafting examples — a complete ADRT clause for progressive dementia with specific clinical trigger conditions, showing exactly where vague language gets overridden and precise language holds
• EPA registration walkthrough — the Enduring Powers of Attorney (NI) Order 1987 process step-by-step, including the £189 OCP registration fee, witnessing rules, and how to restrict attorney powers to specific financial decisions
• The OCP Controllership escape route — what happens when someone loses capacity without an EPA (the Office of Care and Protection appoints a Controller: £326 commencement fee, months of delays, frozen bank accounts), and how advance planning avoids this entirely
• ReSPECT and DNACPR coordination — how these clinical advisory forms interact with your legally binding ADRT across the five Health and Social Care Trusts, and what to do when they conflict
• Dáithí's Law organ donation rules — the 2023 soft opt-out system, deemed consent exclusions, and how organ donation preferences interact with your ADRT
• Bereavement administration — GRONI death registration, the £310 probate application fee for estates over £10,000, Funeral Expenses Payment eligibility, Bereavement Support Payment, the £3,056 Child Funeral Fund, and cross-border probate resealing for families in the Republic of Ireland or Great Britain

Who This Is Built For

• Adult children of ageing parents — you have a 30-90 day window after a dementia or progressive illness diagnosis to get documents in place before capacity is lost and a £2,000+ Controllership application becomes the only option
• Self-planners facing a serious diagnosis — you want to document specific treatment refusals in language NI clinicians are legally required to follow, not broad statements about "quality of life" that get set aside
• Caregivers navigating Health and Social Care Trust systems — you need the precise legal hierarchy between clinical DNACPR forms, ReSPECT documents, and a valid ADRT to advocate on the ward
• Cross-border families — your relative lives in Northern Ireland but you are in the Republic of Ireland or Great Britain, and you need to understand that English LPAs and Irish EPAs do not transfer into the NI system
• Low-income bereaved relatives — you need to access frozen bank accounts below the probate threshold and apply for DfC funeral support without paying solicitor fees

What You Will Not Find Anywhere Else

The statutory portals (DoH NI, Office of Care and Protection, NI Direct) provide raw forms and legalistic guidance written for solicitors, not families. Macmillan's "Your Life and Your Choices" booklet is accessible but pan-UK — it omits the OCP fee schedules, the specific EPA witnessing requirements, and the clinical-legal hierarchy unique to NI common law. Local solicitors can draft the documents, but EPA drafting and registration starts at several hundred pounds, and Controllership applications regularly cost between £2,000 and £5,000 plus VAT.

This toolkit sits in the gap between free-but-incomplete and solicitor-but-expensive: Northern Ireland-specific templates, step-by-step procedures, and the precise drafting language that makes documents clinically enforceable — at a fraction of a single hour's legal consultation.

What's Included

• 14-chapter guide covering healthcare planning, EPA registration, bereavement administration, and estate settlement — in the order things actually need to happen
• ADRT drafting worksheet — structure your treatment refusals, clinical triggers, and life-risk declarations before creating the legal document
• Signing and witnessing checklist — verify every execution requirement at the signing session
• GP consultation worksheet — prepare for your appointment with treatment review prompts, capacity confirmation, and electronic record upload steps
• EPA registration timeline tracker — manage EP1 notices, the 35-day objection window, and EP2 filing with the OCP
• Document distribution log and review audit trail — track every copy of your ADRT and EPA, plus annual review entries and a revocation protocol
• Bereavement administration checklist — every task in the first 30 days, with agencies, phone numbers, and deadlines
• Estate valuation worksheet — asset-by-asset inventory aligned with the NIPF7 Estate Summary
• Trust-by-trust contact directory for the five NI Health and Social Care Trusts and key support agencies

Satisfaction Guarantee

If the guide does not give you the clarity and tools you need to document your healthcare wishes or navigate the bereavement process in Northern Ireland, email us and we will refund your purchase. No conditions, no time limit.

Get Started

Download the free Northern Ireland Advance Directive Quick-Start Checklist to see the planning steps at a glance. When you are ready for the full drafting templates, the EPA walkthrough, and the bereavement administration chapters, get the complete toolkit — for less than fifteen minutes of a solicitor's time.