The Illawarra Retirement Trust (a community-owned independent living, aged care and home care provider) has announced the successful development and trial of ExSitu – a digital end-of-life planning tool that helps family and friends make better decisions for a loved one in their final years.
The online, interactive platform (pictured left) is designed to empower older Australians to take control of the care they receive by helping them to create advance care directives and other protective documentation that reflects their own personal voice.
ExSitu works by taking into account not just an older person’s clinical and medical requirements, but also their values and beliefs – guiding them through an interactive process to create a ‘Hierarchy of Values’ so their family or others invested in their care know what’s important to them.
Users can also upload and store all their important documents on the app together, which allows them to review and edit them at any time. The platform also allows users to share their chosen documents with loved ones, their doctor or carer, and upload them to myGov so there is always an official record of their choices.
ExSitu was developed by April Creed and Rebecca Glover (pictured above, middle) as part of IRT’s 2017 Innovation Challenge, and was co-built and tested with the University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate Start Program. Now, after two years of development, ExSitu is officially up and running and being tested in some of IRT’s homecare services and aged care homes – and it’s also set to go through a legal trial.
We hope this new tool is out on the market soon. Anything that supports our older Australians to make informed, value-driven choices about their end-of-life plan is a great thing in our books.
