Advance care planning emerged as a key focus area in our ongoing research and collaborations with inner city workers. Workers and street families reported distress, anger, and grief from witnessing their peers, clients, and loved ones end up in hospital settings without their wishes documented and unable to speak for themselves. At one of our regular Action Team meetings, an inner city worker showed up with a draft of a simplified advance care plan drawing from the BC Ministry of Health’s 40-page “My Voice” document.

Our team spent over a year workshopping this draft with housing, shelter, support, and peer workers from six inner city organizations. This work was featured in the Globe & Mail in April 2019. In October 2020, we launched our equity-informed advance care planning tools, and today, several individuals and organizations are making use of them. For more information on our process and product development visit our blog.