BABEL Advance Care Planning in Long-term Care

1.0 SUMMARY Most Canadian nursing home (NH) residents are elderly and frail, have multiple chronic health conditions and impairments, and have dementia. In 2014, 244,000 Canadians lived in NHs, including 6% of those ≥65 y.o., at a cost of \>$10 billion/yr. NH residents experience high rates of acute illness; approximately 33% have emergency department (ED) visits and 23% are hospitalized yearly. Many of these visits are avoidable, and expose residents to iatrogenic complications. In Manitoba \>1.5% of NH residents are admitted to intensive care units yearly, where they receive highly aggressive care. Approximately 30-50% of NH residents die each year, experiencing a progressive burden of severe symptoms leading up to death. Thus, there are serious concerns about Advance Care Planning (ACP) and end-of-life (EOL) care in NHs. Canadians in general have mediocre knowledge of, and engagement in ACP. Also, studies show that values such as quality of life and aversion to being dependent trump survival in determining care preferences. Among hospitalized octogenarians, 61% desired comfort care only, or just a brief trial of aggressive care. A U.S. study found that decisions for LTC residents to be sent to ED were frequently driven by families who felt unprepared for their loved ones' death, and insecure about the quality of NH care, where there had been little or no discussion about ACP. Systematic approaches to ACP in NHs have demonstrated benefits, including: increases in ACP uptake, higher compliance with EOL wishes, higher satisfaction with care and emotional well-being, reduced family stress and anxiety, and lower rates of hospitalization. Generally, multimodal ACP interventions have shown the most benefits. Thus, ACP can improve outcomes for NH residents, their families, and society. The goal of this proposal is to apply best practices in ACP, and demonstrate that it can be implemented it in a scalable, sustainable way across provinces. This will result from deliver