Navigating the Road Ahead:
Planning ahead with your voice, values, choices & wellbeing at the centre.
Planning and preparation hub:
Living with a serious or complex health condition can bring uncertainty, changing needs and a lot of decisions. Thinking ahead can help you feel more informed and prepared, while giving you more opportunity to ask questions, understand your options and be involved in shaping the care you receive.
Planning ahead is more than medical decisions and ticking boxes.
Good care should consider the whole person - your physical wellbeing, emotional and mental wellbeing, relationships and family, culture, spirituality, identity, daily life and the things that give your life meaning.
You do not need to have everything worked out.
Beyond the diagnosis:
Your overall wellbeing includes your physical health, but also your emotional wellbeing, relationships, identity, culture, spirituality, independence, values, hopes and the things that give your life meaning. This whole-person view is intrinsic to palliative care, which looks beyond illness and treatment to consider the wider experience of the person and those close to them.
Sometimes a diagnosis brings relief - finally, an explanation for what has been happening. Other times, it can feel like the beginning of a long road you did not choose and were never given a map for.
There may suddenly be appointments, tests, treatments, new terminology and a lot of focus on what is happening medically. Over time, illness can begin to take up more space in everyday life, not only for you but for the people around you too. It can sometimes feel as though the diagnosis has become the main thing people see.
But you are more than your diagnosis.
Te Whare Tapa Whā, developed by Sir Mason Durie, is a model of Māori health and wellbeing that reflects this holistic approach. This diagram shows wellbeing as a wharenui (house) supported by four interconnected dimensions (walls). The model also recognises the importance of whenua, or connection to land and place, as the foundation of wellbeing.
All dimensions matter - because care is about more than just your physical health.
How the Caring Conversations Project can help:
The Caring Conversations Project is here to make some of the harder parts of navigating care feel a little clearer and more manageable.
Our resources are designed to help you look beyond the medical details, understand what matters to you, prepare for important conversations and feel more informed about the choices and support available.
You’ll find practical guides, reflection prompts and conversation tools to help you:
think about your values, priorities and wider wellbeing
prepare questions for your healthcare team
start conversations with family and whānau
understand advance care planning and goals of care
feel more confident being involved in discussions about your care
plan ahead for changing needs without having to work everything out at once
The aim is not to give you all the answers, but to help you feel more prepared, informed and supported as you work out what comes next.