ReSPECT

The process consists of conversations between you and your healthcare professionals. These conversations produce recommendations about the types of care and treatment for which you would or would not want to be considered in an emergency.

The plan is completed when you and your healthcare professionals are clear about what needs to be recorded.

The aim of the process and its plan is to provide a summary of personalised recommendations to ensure you will receive the best possible treatment for your individual situation. This plan, stays with you and should be available immediately to healthcare professionals called to help you in an emergency, whether you are at home or being cared for elsewhere.

Professionals such as ambulance clinicians, out-of-hours doctors, care home staff and hospital staff will be better able to make quick decisions about how best to help you in an emergency if they can see your ReSPECT plan.

If you and your healthcare professional have agreed a plan, it will be used to guide your emergency care and treatment.

If you haven’t, decisions will be made by healthcare professionals trying to act in your best interests and for your benefit.

It is important to understand that the ReSPECT plan cannot be used to demand treatments that are not likely to benefit you and would not be offered.

This personalised process can be for anyone, but will have increasing relevance for people who have complex health needs, people who are likely to be nearing the end of their lives, and people who are at risk of sudden deterioration or cardiac arrest. You may, of course, want to record your care and treatment preferences for other reasons.

You may be the person caring for an individual who lacks capacity (the ability to understand information and use it to make informed choices) to make the recommendations needed in a ReSPECT plan. However, a plan can be made which is agreed to be in their best interests (for their overall benefit).

This is not simply others deciding on their behalf, but a process of discussion with those who know the person best to ensure that the plan is as close to what the individual would have wanted as possible. This discussion is required by law.

The process enables an informed discussion about your care and treatment preferences in an emergency.

The completed plan provides a record of this for you (and a copy for your medical records) and helps healthcare professionals understand what matters to you.