Advance care planning (ACP) enables individuals to define goals and preferences for future medical treatment and care, to discuss these goals and preferences with family and health-care providers, and to record and review these preferences if appropriate. Research has shown that most Western patients express the need about what ACP entails.

Ethnicity creates an important cultural impact on how people look at life and death, so that there is an influence on making decisions about end-of-life care. The Turkish ethnic group is one of the largest visible non-Western minority groups in Western countries. Studies on how ACP is perceived among patients from Turkish origin are lacking.

The objective of this study is exploring the knowledge, experiences, point of views, preferences, attitudes, facilitators and barriers concerning advance care planning of older people from Turkish origin in Belgium. Semi-structured interviews (in the native Turkish language) will be used.

Inclusion Criteria:

People:

• with Turkish origin who live in Belgium and are older than 65 years
• who have also given informed consent to participate in this qualitative interview study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who are terminal ill which means having a life-limiting disease with irreversible decline and who are actively dying (actively dying is related to patients with days of survival). (41)
• Having cognitive impairment