General Practice Resources

The Advance Project^® Toolkit Clinician resource

The Advance Project Toolkit (34MB pdf) has been developed as a reference guide, so you have all the information in one place to refer to as needed after completing the online modules. It contains background information regarding the various tools used in the Advance Project, and tips for how to implement them into your clinical practice. The individual tools can be downloaded below (for easier printing), as you need them in consultations with patients and carers.

The Advance Project^® Guide Clinician resource

The Advance Project Guide (135kb pdf) is a one-page reference point for clinicians wishing to initiate advance care planning and palliative care with suitable patients in their practice.

The Advance Project^® Guide Summary Clinician resource

The Advance Project Guide Summary (322kb pdf) provides guidance on how general practices can systematically initiate advance care planning and palliative care with suitable patients in their practice. It accompanies and expands on the one-page Advance Project Guide.

Note: Various formats are available for selected Advance Project resources (including both printable and fillable pdf versions, plus RTF versions compatible with Best Practice or Medical Director general practice software for the ACP screening interview tool). Please click on the appropriate linked text to download a copy of the resource in the desired format.

Tools for initiating advance care planning

The Advance Care Planning Screening Interview (200kb pdf) Clinician resource
The Advance Care Planning Screening Interview is a structured interview that can be conducted by a nurse or GP during a consultation with a patient. There are spaces within the tool to record the patient’s responses to the questions. [Fillable RTF - Best Practice Software] [Fillable RTF - Medical Director General Practice Software] [Fillable pdf (795kb)]
Quick guide for introducing advance care planning (192kb pdf) Clinician resource
This guide includes suggested phrases to introduce the topic of advance care planning, questions to ask during the initial conversation, and prompts for the clinician to consider. Unlike the Advance Care Planning Screening Interview tool, it does not provide spaces for recording the patient’s responses to the screening questions.
Preparing for an advance care planning conversation (12MB pdf) Patient and clinician resource
This booklet is designed to help the patient to think about their own values and preferences for future care, and to facilitate further conversations about this with their family and/or health care team. [Fillable pdf (1MB)]
Who will speak for you if you can't speak for yourself? (19MB pdf) Patient and clinician resource
This is an information booklet to assist patients with choosing a substitute decision-maker for health care decisions.

Tools for identifying patients who might be at risk of deteriorating and dying

The SPICT^TM (Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool) (188kb pdf) Clinician resource
This can be used to identify people who might be at risk of deteriorating and dying from one or more advanced progressive conditions. It can be used as a second screening tool for any patients for whom you are unsure about the answer to the ‘surprise’ question.
The SPICT-4ALL^TM (641kb pdf) Clinician resource
The SPICT-4ALL^TM uses less medical language than the SPICT^TM and therefore might be useful for practice managers to get an idea of the types of patients in general practice who might be suitable for an assessment of their palliative and supportive care needs.

Tools for screening and evaluating palliative and supportive care needs

The Advance Project Patient Assessment booklet: Supporting you to live well with a chronic illness (5MB pdf) Patient and clinician resource
This evidence-based assessment booklet is a systematic and person-centred way of assessing the palliative and supportive care needs of a patient who might be at risk of deteriorating and dying. This booklet includes two assessment tools, the IPOS and NAT-CC Patient tool, which help to see if the patient has any unmet needs and also help the patient to consider their most important concerns and priorities.[Fillable pdf (1MB)]
The Advance Project Carer Assessment booklet: Looking after you while you care for someone with a chronic illness (5MB pdf) Carer and clinician resource
This booklet includes common concerns and questions of carers of people with a chronic illness, regarding their own health and well-being. It prompts the carer to consider the relative importance of their concerns and whether they would like to discuss them with the GP or other health professional.[Fillable pdf (2.5MB)]
The Advance Project Referral Triage Tool (219kb pdf) Clinician resource
This tool identifies additional support that might be required by a patient and/or carer. This includes whether the patient may benefit from early referral to a specialist palliative care service

MBS items for incorporating Advance Project^® assessments

A fact sheet about Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items and the Advance Project (135kb pdf)
This fact sheet provides a list of MBS items that could be used for advance care planning and/or palliative and supportive care assessments in general practice using the Advance Project resources.

The Advance Project^® Video Suite

A series of practical training videos that present insights and case studies, and further explains how to implement the Advance Project assessment tools into routine clinical practice. View The Advance Project Video Suite page

Please provide feedback about these resources

We would greatly appreciate your feedback about these resources. Your feedback will be very helpful to inform the evaluation of the Advance Project and ongoing quality improvement of these resources for the benefit of your patients.Provide feedback