Advance personal planning
COTA NT’s Aged Care Navigators are delivering the Seniors’ Advocate: Advance Personal Planning Project, part of the Greater Choices for at Home Palliative Care Program. The project aims to increase seniors’ awareness and understanding of Advance Personal Plans and, possibly most crucially, helps people to make a written record of their wishes.
What is an Advance Personal Plan?
An Advance Personal Plan is a legal document that you can use to plan for what happens if you can’t make decisions for yourself, for example if you have an accident or become unwell. Advance personal planning replaces enduring power of attorney in the Northern Territory (NT). It does not replace your will and only applies while you are still alive. If you change your mind about your plan and are able to make decisions, you can create a new plan at any time (read more about Advance Personal Plans).
Why is having an Advance Personal Plan important?
Advance care planning ensures that your future healthcare will align with your values and preferences. Everyone can benefit from advance care planning, but especially people who are older, have a chronic or life-limiting illness, multiple diseases or early cognitive impairment.
Advance Personal Planning information session with Thai seniors
Delivering the Advance Personal Planning Project
COTA NT and its Aged Care Navigators have already helped hundreds of people start and normalise conversations around end-of-life planning, that for some can be challenging and difficult. This project enables experienced staff to reach seniors and their hierarchies of family and friends (chosen or potential future healthcare decision-makers) living in Darwin, Palmerston, Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
- Information and support is free.
- All personal information is kept strictly confidential.
- Support can be provided to seniors
- from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds where English is not the primary-language spoken,
- those with limited access to technology,
- those living with mild cognitive impairments or early onset dementia;
- or those who may be economically disadvantaged.
Advance Personal Planning information session with Indigenous clients.
Contact
To book a support or information session for either a group or individual about Advance Personal Planning, in the first instance you should contact COTA NT Head Office either by calling 08 8941 1004 during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm) or contacting COTA NT online.
Resources / Further Reading
- About: Public Guardian and Trustee Advance Personal Plans
- Advance Personal Plan template: Download an advance-personal-plan template.
- Advance Personal Plans in language here (Chinese, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portugese, Swahili, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese).
- Help to start conversations about end of life planning, The Conversation Project.
- The Goodbye Guide – free booklet with tools and checklists to help you prepare details of your estate and leave instructions for your end of life The Goodbye Guide (The Goodbye Guide (floral edition))
- Tips on conversations, sharing and story plans and much more, Advance Care Planning Australia.
Dying to Know Day
Dying to Know Day on the 8th August is an annual campaign that empowers all adult Australians to be strong self-advocates for their own personal planning when it comes to their future. During August, adults at all stages of life are encouraged to improve their knowledge around choices for their end-of-life and to start their personal planning.
COTA NT has been holding Dying to Know Day workshops since 2021, but has engaged the community in talking about Advance Personal Plans since they were created in the Northern Territory in March 2014. Visit our Dying to Know Day page.
This project is funded by the Northern Territory Primary Health Network (NT PHN) through the Australian Government’s PHN Program
Page updated 6 November 2025
