Shared care planning in people with cognitive disorders and dementia: a survey among patients and caregivers in Italy.

Background: There is wide convergence in the positions of scientific societies, patient associations and public bodies regarding the advisability of advance care planning (ACP) in cognitive disorders and dementia to respect the specificity of the person. Nevertheless, planning in advance for dementia represents a unique challenge. In Italy, law n.

[Capacity and right to therapeutic self-determination in law no. 219/2017. The case of persons with psychiatric and cognitive disorder.].

Law no. 219/2017 represents Italy's most comprehensive regulatory framework aimed at enabling the exercise of the right to therapeutic self-determination and ensuring its best expression even for people without legal or natural capacity, through the tools of informed consent, shared care planning and advance care directives. Nevertheless, some criticalities affect the wording of the law, characterised by a promiscuous and heterogeneous use of the terms referring to capacity and by their interpretability.

Italian law n. 219/2017 on consent and advance directives: survey among Ethics Committees on their involvement and possible role.

Background: On December 2017 the Italian Parliament approved law n. 219/2017 "Provisions for informed consent and advance directives" regarding challenging legal and bioethical issues related to healthcare decisions and end-of-life choices. The law does not contain an explicit reference to Ethics Committees (ECs), but they could still play a role in implementing the law.