ReSPECT is a process that creates personalised recommendations for a person’s clinical care in a future emergency in which they are unable to make or express choices.
The ReSPECT process is a new approach to encourage people to have an individual plan to try to ensure that they get the right care and treatment in an anticipated future emergency in which they no longer have the capacity to make or express choices.
The ReSPECT process is intended to respect both patient preferences and clinical judgement.
The ReSPECT process provides health and care professionals responding to an emergency with a summary of recommendations to help them to make immediate decisions about that person’s care and treatment. ReSPECT can be complementary to a wider process of advance/anticipatory care planning.
The ReSPECT plan is created through conversations between a person and their health professionals. The plan is recorded on a form and includes their personal priorities for care and agreed clinical recommendations about care and treatment that could help to achieve the outcome that they would want, that would not help, or that they would not want.
The ReSPECT process can be for anyone but will have increasing relevance for people who have complex health needs, people who are likely to be nearing the end of their lives, and people who are at risk of sudden deterioration or cardiac arrest. Some people will want to record their care and treatment preferences for other reasons.
It is hoped that the ReSPECT process will be adopted gradually and widely throughout the UK, so that a person’s ReSPECT plan will be recognised and used wherever they are when an emergency occurs.
The ReSPECT process was created because an approach that focuses only on withholding CPR in people who are dying or for whom CPR would offer no overall benefit has resulted in misunderstandings, poor or absent communication and poor or absent documentation.
Currently very few people discuss what type of care they would or would not want in an emergency situation.
