Assisi Hospice is a charity organisation that provides the whole continuum of inpatient (85 beds), day care and home care services. In line with national COVID-19 measures, the hospice came up with guidelines to reflect these measures on the ground. The experience of Assisi Hospice in delivering palliative care in a pandemic mirrors that of similar hospice providers in Singapore. We have chosen to describe the challenges based on each setting below and the strategies implemented to mitigate them.
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On 2 January 2020, Singapore implemented preventive measures to minimise importation of COVID-19 cases after China reported its first case to the World Health Organisation on 31 December 2019, in what was to become a global pandemic. After confirming its first local case of COVID-19 on 23 January 2020, Singapore has adopted increasingly stringent containment measures, moving into mitigation mode when the number of cases escalated. Local hospitals have also instituted progressively stricter restrictions on visitation hours and the number of visitors. As of 28 May 2020, there were 33,249 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 14,925 cases under observation, 18,294 cases discharged, 7 patients in critical condition and 23 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
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Objective: In Singapore, more elderly are living in nursing homes (NHs), with a resultant increase in deaths occurring in NHs. However, palliative care training is limited in Singapore’s core nursing curriculum, and many NHs rely on foreign-trained staff who may not have previous palliative care training. Our study aimed to evaluate whether a needs-based course can improve the palliative care knowledge and attitudes of NH nurses in Singapore.
Methods: Twenty-five nurses participated in the study. The intervention was an 8-week palliative care course developed based on needs assessment and led by a multidisciplinary faculty. A 50-item knowledge test was administered at baseline and 0 day and 3 and 6 months postcourse. Semistructured interviews were conducted at 3 months to assess for changes in attitudes and nursing practices.
Results: The mean knowledge score increased significantly from 31.4 (±4.4) precourse to 35.1 (±5.1) at 3 months. Knowledge scores in end-of-life care increased up to 6 months, and scores for pain and symptom management increased significantly at 3 months. Participants reported a positive change with improved communication skills and increased compassion. There was a lack of opportunities to apply some new knowledge and skills due to regulations and perceived residents’ preferences to engage more local senior staff.
Conclusion: The multidisciplinary needs-based palliative care course using various teaching modalities with follow-up knowledge tests helped to increase knowledge and improve communication skills and attitudes of NH nurses towards palliative care. The increase in knowledge and positive change in attitudes was noted to be sustained for at least 3 months postcourse.
OBJECTIVES: A qualitative interpretive-systemic focus group study was conducted to examine the developmental and implementational underpinnings of Asia's first national Advance Care Planning (ACP) programme constituted in Singapore.
METHODS: 63 physicians, nurses, medical social workers, and allied health workers who actively rendered ACP were purposively recruited across seven major public hospitals and specialist centers.
RESULTS: Framework analysis revealed 19 themes, organized into 5 categories including Life and Death Culture, ACP Coordination, ACP Administration, ACP Outcomes, and Sustainability Shift. These categories and themes formed an Interpretive-Systemic Framework of Sustainable ACP, which reflects the socio-cultural, socio-political, and socio-spiritual contexts that influence ACP provision, highlighting the need to adopt a public health strategy for enhancing societal readiness for end-of-life conversations.
SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The Interpretive-Systemic Framework of Sustainable ACP underscores the importance of health policy, organizational structure, social discourse, and shared meaning in ACP planning and delivery so as to support and empower care decision-making among terminally ill Asian patients and their families facing mortality.
Ageing has been recognized as one of the most critically important health-care issues worldwide. It is relevant to Asia, where the increasing number of older populations has drawn attention to the paramount need for health-care investment, particularly in end-of-life care. The advocacy of advance care planning is a mean to honor patient autonomy. Since most East Asian countries are influenced by Confucianism and the concept of 'filial piety,' patient autonomy is consequently subordinate to family values and physician authority. The dominance from family members and physicians during a patient's end-of-life decision-making is recognized as a cultural feature in Asia. Physicians often disclose the patient's poor prognosis and corresponding treatment options to the male, family member rather to the patient him/herself. In order to address this ethical and practical dilemma, the concept of 'relational autonomy' and the collectivism paradigm might be ideally used to assist Asian people, especially older adults, to share their preferences on future care and decision-making on certain clinical situations with their families and important others. In this review article, we invited experts in end-of-life care from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to briefly report the current status of advance care planning in each country from policy, legal and clinical perspectives. According to the Asian experiences, we have seen different models of advance care planning implementation. The Asian Delphi Taskforce for advance care planning is currently undertaken by six Asian countries and a more detailed, culturally sensitive whitepaper will be published in the near future.
Facing the possibility of a surge of COVID-19-infected patients requiring ventilatory support in Intensive Care Units (ICU), the Singapore Hospice Council and the Chapter of Palliative Medicine Physicians forward its position on the guiding principles that ought to drive the allocation of ICU beds and its role in care of these patients and their families.
Background: While the impact of family caregiving has been well-documented, many of such studies center on investigating external factors such as socioeconomic status, accessibility to resources and availability of social support as the primary causation of caregiver wellbeing outcomes. This paper explores the motivations that drive family caregivers in supporting their family members at the end-of-life, and critically examines how internal appraisal processes of such motivations can both positively and negatively impact their wellbeing.
Methods: This study adopted an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate the motivations and internal appraisal processes of Asian family caregivers in Singapore who were tending to a dying family member. Qualitative dyadic interview data (N = 20) was drawn from a larger Randomized Controlled Trial for a novel Family Dignity Intervention (FDI) for palliative care patients and their families. The sampling population consisted of participants aged 21 and above who were identified to be the primary caregivers of older palliative care patients with a prognosis of less than 12 months. Data collection was conducted in the homes of patients and family caregivers.
Results: Findings revealed six themes that could either nurture or diminish caregiver wellbeing: 1) Honoring Fidelity (caregivers were motivated to commit to their caregiving roles in order to avoid regret), 2) Alleviating Suffering (caregivers were motivated to relieve their family member’s pain), 3) Enduring Attachment (caregivers were motivated to spend time together with their family member), 4) Preserving Gratitude (caregivers were motivated to express their appreciation to their family member by caregiving), 5) Navigating Change (caregivers were motivated to adapt accordingly to changes in the illness trajectory) and 6) Reconciling with Mortality (caregivers were motivated to respond accordingly to their family member’s prognosis). The final theme of the Wellbeing Determinant is posited as an indication of self-determination, and is conjectured to influence how caregiving motivations are appraised by the caregiver.
Conclusion: Fulfilling and enhancing one’s sense of self-determination appears central to infusing one’s caregiving motivations with positive meaning, and consequently nurturing one’s wellbeing in the end-of-life caregiving journey. These findings are discussed with recommendations for healthcare professionals working with family caregivers of palliative care patients.
Background: The impact and consequences of cancer on the patients and their family caregivers (FCs) are closely intertwined. Caregivers’ burdens can be increased due to the patients’ unmet needs and unresolved problems. Additionally, the caregivers’ unmet needs may adversely affect their own well-being and the patients’ health outcomes. This study aims to determine the palliative care needs and the factors associated with these needs in patients with advanced solid cancer and their FCs.
Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, 599 patients with advanced solid tumours and 599 FCs were recruited from the largest ambulatory cancer centre and the inpatient ward of the largest hospital in Singapore. Determinants of patients’ and FCs’ needs were assessed by the Comprehensive Needs Assessment Tool (CNAT) and CNAT-C respectively. Clinical characteristics of patients were obtained from medical records.
Results: The FCs (median age 51 years) were younger than the patients (median age 62 years), and were mostly female (62.6%) whereas the gender distribution of patients was quite balanced (49.2% male and 50.8% female). Both patients and FCs had “information” and “practical support” in their top three domains of palliative care needs. The second highest domain of needs was “psychological problems” (16.4 ± 21.5) in patients and “health-care staff” (23.4 ± 26.5) in FCs. The item that had the highest need score in “information” domain for both patients and FCs was “financial support for patients, either from government and/ or private organizations”. Under clinical setting, the inpatients (19.2 ± 16.4) and their FCs (26.0 ± 19.0) tend to have higher needs than the outpatients (10.5 ± 12.1) and their FCs (14.7 ± 14.3). In terms of palliative care, higher total CNAT score was observed in both patients (16.6 ± 12.9 versus 13.3 ± 15.2) and their FCs (25.1 ± 18.6 versus 17.7 ± 16.7) who received palliative care. In terms of patients’ KPS scores, patients with lower KPS scores tend to have higher needs.
Conclusion: Overall, the findings confirm that patients with advanced cancer and their FCs have many palliative care needs irrespective of their clinical settings. Initiatives and interventions for the development of a comprehensive support system for both patients with advanced cancer and their FCs are warranted and can be derived from these findings.
OBJECTIVES: Death is a significant event that affects healthcare providers emotionally. We aimed to determine internal medicine (IM) and paediatric (PD) residents' responses and the impact on the residents following patient deaths, and to compare any differences between IM and PD residents. We also aimed to determine whether sufficient resources and measures were in place to support residents through their grief process.
METHODS: This is a single-centre, cross-sectional study involving residents from IM and PD programmes from an academic tertiary hospital in Singapore. The residents completed a questionnaire regarding their responses and emotions after experiencing patient deaths.
RESULTS: A total of 122 residents (85 IM and 37 PD, equally distributed between year 1 to year 4 of residency training) participated, with 100% response rate. Only half (57%) felt they would be comfortable treating a dying patient and 66.4% reported feeling sad following their patient's death. Most (79.5%) were not aware of support resources that were available and 82% agreed that formal bereavement training should be included in the residency curriculum. PD residents had more negative symptoms than IM residents, with poor concentration (PD 35.1% vs IM 16.5%, p=0.02) and lethargy (PD 35.1% vs IM 9.4%, p<0.01) being the most common.
CONCLUSION: In our Asian context, residents are negatively affected by patient deaths, especially the PD residents. There is a need to incorporate relevant bereavement training for all residents.
BACKGROUND: A novel evidence-based Narrative e-Writing Intervention (NeW-I) has been developed and tested in Singapore to advance psychosociospiritual support for parents of children with chronic life-threatening illnesses. NeW-I is informed by an international systematic review and a Singapore-based qualitative inquiry on the lived experience of parental bereavement and supported by literature on anticipatory grief interventions for improving the holistic well-being of parent caregivers of seriously ill children.
OBJECTIVE: This study's aim was to provide an accessible platform, NeW-I-which is a strengths- and meaning-focused and therapist-facilitated mobile app and web-based counseling platform-that aims to enhance quality of life, spiritual well-being, hope, and perceived social support and reduce depressive symptoms, caregiver burden, and risk of complicated grief among parents of children with chronic life-threatening illnesses.
METHODS: The NeW-I therapist-facilitated web-based platform comprises a mobile app and a website (both of which have the same content and functionality). NeW-I has been implemented in Singapore as a pilot open-label randomized controlled trial comprising intervention and control groups. Both primary and secondary outcomes will be self-reported by participants through questionnaires. In collaboration with leading pediatric palliative care providers in Singapore, the trial aims to enroll 36 participants in each group (N=72), so that when allowing for 30% attrition at follow-up, the sample size will be adequate to detect a small effect size of 0.2 in the primary outcome measure, with 90% power and two-sided significance level of at least .05. The potential effectiveness of NeW-I and the accessibility and feasibility of implementing and delivering the intervention will be assessed.
RESULTS: Funding support and institutional review board approval for this study have been secured. Data collection started in January 2019 and is ongoing.
CONCLUSIONS: NeW-I aspires to enhance holistic pediatric palliative care services through a structured web-based counseling platform that is sensitive to the unique cultural needs of Asian family caregivers who are uncomfortable with expressing emotion even during times of loss and separation. The findings of this pilot study will inform the development of a full-scale NeW-I protocol and further research to evaluate the efficacy of NeW-I in Singapore and in other Asian communities around the world.
BACKGROUND: Patients at their end-of-life (EOL) phase frequently visit the emergency department (ED) due to their symptoms, yet the environment and physicians in ED are not traditionally equipped or trained to provide palliative care. This multicentre study aims to measure the current quality of EOL care in ED to identify gaps, formulate improvements and implement the improved EOL care protocol. We shall also evaluate healthcare resource utilisation and its associated costs.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study employs a quasiexperimental interrupted time series design using both qualitative and quantitative methods, involving the EDs of three tertiary hospitals in Singapore, over a period of 3 years. There are five phases in this study: (1) retrospective chart reviews of patients who died within 5 days of ED attendance; (2) pilot phase to validate the CODE questionnaire in the local context; (3) preimplementation phase; (4) focus group discussions (FGDs); and (5) postimplementation phase. In the prospective cohort, patients who are actively dying or have high likelihood of mortality this admission, and whose goal of care is palliation, will be eligible for inclusion. At least 140 patients will be recruited for each preimplementation and postimplementation phase. There will be face-to-face interviews with patients' family members, review of medical records and self-administered staff survey to evaluate existing knowledge and confidence. The FGDs will involve hospital and community healthcare providers. Data obtained from the retrospective cohort, preimplementation phase and FGDs will be used to guide prospective improvement and protocol changes. Patient, family and staff relevant outcomes from these changes will be measured using time series regression.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study protocol has been reviewed and ethics approval obtained from the National Healthcare Group Domain Specific Review Board, Singapore. The results from this study will be actively disseminated through manuscript publications and conference presentations.
Background: factors associated with place of death inform policies with respect to allocating end-of-life care resources and tailoring supportive measures.
Objective: To determine factors associated with non-hospital deaths among cancer patients.
Design: Retrospective cohort study of cancer decedents, examining factors associated with non-hospital deaths using multinomial logistic regression with hospital deaths as the reference category.
Setting/subjects: Cancer patients (n = 15254) in Singapore who died during the study period from January 1, 2012 till December 31, 2105 at home, acute hospital, long-term care (LTC) or hospice were included.
Results: Increasing age (categories =65 years: RRR 1.25–2.61), female (RRR 1.40; 95% CI 1.28–1.52), Malays (RRR 1.67; 95% CI 1.47–1.89), Brain malignancy (RRR 1.92; 95% CI 1.15–3.23), metastatic disease (RRR 1.33–2.01) and home palliative care (RRR 2.11; 95% CI 1.95–2.29) were associated with higher risk of home deaths. Patients with low socioeconomic status were more likely to have hospice or LTC deaths: those living in smaller housing types had higher risk of dying in hospice (1–4 rooms apartment: RRR 1.13–3.17) or LTC (1–5 rooms apartment: RRR 1.36–4.11); and those with Medifund usage had higher risk of dying in LTC (RRR 1.74; 95% CI 1.36–2.21). Patients with haematological malignancies had increased risk of dying in hospital (categories of haematological subtypes: RRR 0.06–0.87).
Conclusions: We found key sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with non-hospital deaths in cancer patients. More can be done to enable patients to die in the community and with dignity rather than in a hospital.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents unique challenges to Asian countries like Singapore with a predominantly Confucian culture. Palliative care providers play an important role in supporting their patients and family members in these difficult times.
Background: In 2016, over 6.6 million children died globally, and 245 children died in Singapore. Chronic illnesses are prevalent causes of child mortality around the world. Despite growing research that examines the lived experience of parents bereaved by their child’s chronic life-threatening illness, there is no such study within the Asian context.
Methods: To bridge this knowledge gap, meaning-oriented, strength-focused interviews were conducted with 25 parental units (i.e. 6 couples, 13 lone mothers, 4 lone fathers, and 2 primary parental figures) who lost their child to chronic life-threatening illness in Singapore (N = 31), including those of Chinese (n = 17), Malay (n = 10) and Indian ethnicities (n = 4), between August 2017 and April 2018.
Results: Data analysis adhering to the grounded theory approach revealed 7 themes and 25 sub-themes that were organized into a Trauma-to-Transformation Model of Parental Bereavement. This model shows the major milestones in participants’ lived experience of their child’s chronic life-threatening illness and death, starting from the diagnosis of their child’s chronic life-threatening illness and the subsequent emotional turmoil (Theme 1), the mourning of their child’s death and the losses which accompanied the death (Theme 3) and participants’ experience of posttraumatic growth through reflection of their journey of caregiving and child loss (Theme 5). The model further describes the deliberate behaviors or ‘rituals’ that helped participants to regain power over their lives (Theme 2), sustain an intimate bond with their child beyond death (Theme 4), and transcend their loss by deriving positive outcomes from their experience (Theme 6). Finally, the model denotes that the lived experiences and well-being of participants were embedded within the health-and-social-care ecosystem, and in turn impacted by it (Theme 7).
Conclusion: These themes and their corresponding sub-themes are discussed, with recommendations for enhancing culturally sensitive support services for grieving Asian parents around the globe.
BACKGROUND: Efforts to improve quality of end-of-life (EOL) care are increasingly focused on eliciting patients' EOL preference through advance care planning (ACP). However, if patients' EOL preference changes over time and their ACP documents are not updated, these documents may no longer be valid at the time EOL decisions are made.
OBJECTIVES: To assess extent and correlates of changes in stated preference for aggressive EOL care over time.
DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial of a formal ACP program versus usual care in Singapore.
PATIENTS: Two hundred eighty-two patients with heart failure (HF) and New York Heart Association Classification III and IV symptoms were recruited and interviewed every 4 months for up to 2 years to assess their preference for EOL care. Analytic sample included 200 patients interviewed at least twice.
RESULTS: Nearly two thirds (64%) of patients changed their preferred type of EOL care at least once. Proportion of patients changing their stated preference for type of EOL care increased with time and the change was not unidirectional. Patients who understood their prognosis correctly were less likely to change their preference from non-aggressive to aggressive EOL care (OR 0.66, p value 0.07) or to prefer aggressive EOL care (OR 0.53; p value 0.001). On the other hand, patient-surrogate discussion of care preference was associated with a higher likelihood of change in patient preference from aggressive to non-aggressive EOL care (OR 1.83; p value 0.03).
CONCLUSION: The study provides evidence of instability in HF patients' stated EOL care preference. This undermines the value of an ACP document recorded months before EOL decisions are made unless a strategy exists for easily updating this preference.
BACKGROUND: Family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer have been reported to provide long hours of care and be at risk for poor psychological outcomes. Although research has focused on the nature of caregiving burden, little attention has been paid to identifying protective factors that improve caregiver psychological outcomes.
AIM: We examined the relationship between caregivers' time spent caregiving and the following psychological outcomes: anxiety, depression and caregiving esteem. Subsequently, we explored the main and moderating effects of caregiver-perceived self-competency and sense of meaning on caregiver psychological outcomes.
DESIGN/PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the baseline data from an ongoing cohort study. Family caregivers of advanced cancer patients (n=287) were recruited from two tertiary hospitals in Singapore.
RESULTS: Time spent caregiving was not significantly associated with caregiver anxiety, depression or caregiving esteem. However, significant main effects of self-competency on anxiety and caregiving esteem; and sense of meaning on anxiety, depression and caregiving esteem were observed. Moderator analyses further indicated that self-competency attenuated the positive relationship between time spent caregiving and anxiety, while sense of meaning attenuated the negative relationship between time spent caregiving and caregiving esteem.
CONCLUSION: Greater perceived self-competency and sense of meaning are related to better caregiver psychological outcomes, and protect caregivers from worsening outcomes as caregiving hours increase. Our findings suggest that screening caregivers for distress is an important part of care, and that supportive interventions for caregivers should aim to enhance their perceived caregiving competencies and the ability to make meaning of their caregiving role.
Context: Despite the preference to pass away at home, many dementia patients die in institutions, resulting in a paucity of studies examining end-of-life care outcomes in the home setting.
Objective: To identify modifiable factors associated with the comfort of dementia patients dying at home and families’ satisfaction with care.
Methods: This is a prospective cohort study conducted from October 2014 to April 2019 in Singapore. Dementia patients at Stage 7 on the Functional Assessment Staging Scale, with albumin<35g/L, enteral feeding or pneumonia were recruited from a palliative homecare programme. Independent variables included demographics, medical information and care preferences. The Comfort Assessment in Dying with Dementia scale assessed dying patients’ comfort while the Satisfaction with Care at the End-of-Life in Dementia scale evaluated family caregivers’ satisfaction two months post-bereavement. Gamma regression identified factors independently associated with comfort and satisfaction.
Results: The median age of 202 deceased patients whose comfort was assessed was 88 years. Anti-cholinergic prescription (60.4% of patients) [ß (95% CI) = 1.823 (0.660–2.986), P = 0.002] was positively associated with comfort, whereas opioid prescription (89.6%) [ß (95% CI) = -2.179 (-4.107 to -0.251), P = 0.027] and >1 antibiotic courses used in the last two weeks of life (77.2%) [ß (95% CI) = -1.968 (-3.196 to -0.740), P = 0.002] were negatively associated. Independent factors associated with families' satisfaction with care were comfort [ß (95% CI) = 0.149 (0.012–0.286), P = 0.033] and honoring of medical intervention preferences (96.0%) [ß (95% CI) = 3.969 (1.485–6.453), P = 0.002].
Conclusion: Achieving comfort and satisfaction with care for dementia patients dying at home involves an interplay of modifiable factors. Honouring medical intervention preferences, such as those with palliative intent associated with patients’ comfort determined families’ satisfaction with care.
Background: The Universal Health Coverage goals call for access to affordable palliative care to reduce inequities in “total pain” and suffering. To achieve this, a patient-centred understanding of these inequities is required.
Aim: To assess association of total pain and suffering (i.e. physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health outcomes) and perceived health care quality with financial difficulties among stage IV solid malignancy patients.
Design: Using baseline data from the COMPASS cohort study, we assessed total pain and suffering including physical (physical and functional well-being, pain, symptom burden), psychological (anxiety, depression, emotional well-being), social (social well-being), and spiritual (spiritual well-being, hope) outcomes and perceived health care quality (physician communication, nursing care, and coordination/responsiveness). Financial difficulties were scored by assessing patient perception of the extent to which their resources were meeting expenses for their treatments, daily living, and other obligations. We used multivariable linear/logistic regression to test association between financial difficulties and each patient-reported outcome.
Setting/participants: Six hundred stage IV solid malignancy patients in Singapore.
Results: Thirty-five percent reported difficulty in meeting expenses. A higher financial difficulties score was associated with worse physical, psychological, social, spiritual outcomes, and lower perceived quality of health care coordination and responsiveness (i.e. greater total pain and suffering) (all p < 0.05). These associations persisted after adjustment for socio-economic indicators.
Conclusion: Results identify advanced cancer patients with financial difficulties to be a vulnerable group with greater reported total pain and suffering. A holistic patient-centred approach to care at end-of-life may help meet goals for Universal Health Coverage.
OBJECTIVE: This is the first known study which examines the evolutionary nature of spousal interaction patterns among Asian parents of children with chronic life-threatening illness, from the time of providing care to their child through bereavement. This study is informed by earlier findings that when a child is diagnosed with a chronic life-threatening illness, parents are faced with multiple stressors, leaving them with little time to invest in their spousal relationship.
PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A constructivist-phenomenological research paradigm was adopted and meaning-oriented interviews were conducted with 20 parental units (i.e., 6 couples, 12 lone mothers and 2 lone fathers) of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicities who lost their child to chronic life-threatening illness in Singapore.
RESULTS: Qualitative thematic analysis of the data revealed four themes, which describe the evolutionary nature of spousal interaction patterns among Asian parents of children with chronic life-threatening illness, from caregiving through bereavement. Findings reveal participants' tendency to concentrate on pragmatic, solution-focused communication during the period of caregiving (pragmatic interaction), avoid discussion about their emotional pain as a means of protecting their spouse (partner-oriented self-regulation), respect and acknowledge their spouse's personal coping strategies (empathic responding) and show greater appreciation and emotional expression within the spousal relationship after their child's death (affective appreciation).
CONCLUSION: Engaging in pragmatic discussions, deferring emotion-focused and potentially distressing conversations, and acknowledging their spouse's need for personal space are important coping strategies for Asian couples facing their child's chronic life-threatening illness and in the immediate aftermath of his/her death. Bereaved couples who have processed their grief individually feel ready to share their reflections with their spouse, deriving meaning and greater relational closeness through such disclosure. These findings are discussed from a cultural lens, with recommendations for healthcare professionals working with Asian parents of children with chronic life-threatening illness.
This article examines the evolution of advance care planning (ACP) in Singapore through the development of a less-formal, communications-based model - the Living Matters program - and its experience with local cultural and community responses to the process and its outcomes. Living Matters is, in practice, arguably a communitarian approach to ACP. The article then examines the challenges Living Matters poses to the overarching legal framework for ACP and suggests improvements to the proxy decision-making framework under the Mental Capacity Act (Singapore, cap 177A, 2010 rev ed), offering more flexible legal tools for ACP, and more regulatory support for the means to implement ACP outcomes effectively.