My Care Choices
The My Care Choices Register is a record of a person’s decisions about the kind of care they wish to receive in the future if they were more unwell, and their preference for the place of care.
At St Helena, we empower people to plan ahead, share their choices and achieve their wishes; enabling them to die well with dignity and choice in their preferred place of care.
We work with other local health and social care partners to promote the My Care Choices Record, a document where people who are living with an incurable illness, dementia or frailty can record and share their choices for future care, including end of life care, free of charge.
Once the record has been filled out, consent can be given for the person’s GP to record their choices on the My Care Choices Register. The record can be updated at any time, should the person's wishes change.
The My Care Choices Register is an electronic record of a person’s decisions about the kind of care they wish to receive in the future if they were more unwell and their preference for the place of care at end of life.
It is held online and can be accessed securely only by staff responsible for their care, such as GPs, community nurses, hospital staff, ambulance services, and St Helena, who host the register. They can access it any hour of the day or night, so people can be confident that everyone looking after them knows the care they want. The record helps guide health care professionals in coordinating a person's care.
Who can join the register?
The My Care Choices Register is for those people in North Essex who:
- Have a severe or chronic disease for whom a deterioration may be life-threatening or
- Are in frail overall health and at risk of sudden deterioration or
- Those with dementia who wish to record their preferences for future health care or
- Live in a residential or nursing home for older people or
- Have a condition making it likely they are in the last year of life
Why forward planning is important
- Peace of mind
- Enables healthcare professionals to understand how you wish to be cared for
- Enables your choices for care to be recorded should you become more unwell
The My Care Choices Register is a record of a person’s decisions about the kind of care they wish to receive in the future if they were more unwell, and their preference for the place of care.
It is held online and can be accessed securely only by staff responsible for their care, such as the GP, community nurses, hospital staff, ambulance services, and St Helena which hosts the register. It can be accessed any hour of the day or night, so people can be confident that everyone looking after them knows the care they want.
“Neil had put an Advance Care Plan in place while he was perfectly healthy; all the things he wanted, his preferred priorities of care. ”
You can get a printed record from your GP and they can help you to complete it.
However, if you would like to print out or fill in your own record digitally, please click on the link below.
You may be wondering what sort of information you could include in your record. Click on the link below to view Edna's record. Edna is not a real person but it should give you an example of what sort of information you might want to include in your own.
Easy Read version
The My Care Choices Record has also been translated into Easy Read. This can be downloaded below.
Make a difference
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Your donation, large or small, can make a big difference, giving more local people dignity and choice at the end of life.
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