Decide if and when your Advance Decision should be triggered

Most diabetic patients retain the ability to make their own decision until the end of their life. However, a small percentage of patient with diabetes lose this ability toward the end of their life.

If you suffer from insulin dependent diabetes and have lost the ability to make decisions about your health, then you are entitled to request that all insulin therapy is discontinued. Stopping Insulin therapy will result in your going into coma from which you will not recover. Stopping insulin will shorten your life.

You are strongly advised to complete your Advance Decision for both dementia and stroke and head injury (including coma) if you select the decision below.

 Final steps

To save your Advance Decision, select the 'Download' option under 'Document Builder'. You will then need to:

• Print off your Advance Decision.
• Sign and date your Advance Decision in the presence of a witness.
• Get your Advance Decision signed and dated by your witness. 

The same steps apply to your Advance Statement, if you have created one.

What to do after creating your Advance Decision

Informing family and / or close friends as well as you GP will ensure that the treatments you wish to refuse are known. This is the only way of making sure that your Advance Decision can be followed should you lose the ability to make decisions.

You should now therefore:

• Make many copies of your signed and witnessed Advance Decision.
• Inform your GP about your Advance Decision, especially if you have not already consulted them about creating one.
• Tell members of your family and people who help look after you about your Advance Decision and what you have written in it.
• Give your GP, family and / or close friends signed and witnessed copies of your Advance Decision, and your Advance Statement if you have created one. 
• Make sure that is is recorded in your medical notes that you have an Advance Decision and / or Advance Statement.