ex-Community Responder here.
All comments my own understanding,
Firstly the question:DNR / DNAR (Do not Attempt resuscitation) forms are the official version. Even DNARs might sometimes not be accepted, They do need to be in date, valid for what has actually happened at the time of needing them, and need medical input (need to be signed by a Dr for instance) so cannot be knocked up on the spur of the moment. OTOH when my dad was in hospital they sat and discussed it with him, he agreed and they set one up in short order.
ReSPECT Forms.
https://www.resus.org.uk/respect/respec ... fessionalsReSPECT stands for Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment. The ReSPECT process creates a summary of personalised recommendations for a person’s clinical care in a future emergency in which they do not have capacity to make or express choices. Such emergencies may include death or cardiac arrest, but are not limited to those events. The process is intended to respect both patient preferences and clinical judgement. The agreed realistic clinical recommendations that are recorded include a recommendation on whether or not CPR should be attempted if the person’s heart and breathing stop.
Similar to DN(A)Rs and becoming more common. Set up by a medical professional in conjunction with the patient.
As for written bits of paper, "Do Not Resuscitate" tattooed across chests etc. they have no legal standing, but they will be taken into consideration in the moment. It is no-one's interest to start CPR when the outcome is unlikely to succeed, or the quality of life afterwards will be minimal should it succeed. CPR is pretty brutal and not a dignified way to go.
Lions' Message in a Bottle. This is a plastic green and white tub (size of an oversized medicine bottle) that contains a sheet of paper with sections for all sorts of information a medic might need. Drs contact details, next of kin, meds and their locations and a whole lot more. It comes with two green cross sticky labels. One goes on the inside of the front door. Medics will look here for a sticker. If there is one, it indicates that there is a bottle in the house. The other sticker goes on the outside of where it is stored. By convention the fridge is ideal, bathroom medicine cabinet a second best. Meds are not stored in it, so having it in the fridge is not an issue.
I recommend that everyone gets one. The Lions give them away for free. You can often see the Lions promoting it on stands at fetes etc. or get one or more from here:
https://lionsclubs.co/MemberArea/home/l ... -a-bottle/Doesn't contain actual DNR stuff, but there is a tick box for indicating that something exists.