Background Advanced care planning requires ethno-specific organisations to balance the local regulations concerning respect for individual decision making and respect for cultural guidance regarding service provision. Unfortunately, these guidelines often do not agree. At Jewish Care, an ethno-specific organisation, this is particularly significant because secular end of life care provisions will more often than not conflict with the values guiding the medical and nursing care within the organisation.

Aim To develop an ethno-specific Advanced Care Plan that takes into account government guidelines and is respectful of religious imperatives guiding end of life care.

Methods Utilising an external survey and an internal interview process, statistical data and results were collected identifying a gap between a cultural imperative and present contemporary thoughts of the dynamic community we serve.

Results A person-centred advanced care has was developed to enable our ethno-specific organisation to support residents/clients and their families with care that meets their needs whilst also providing support within a Jewish ethical framework. This new model has successfully bridged the gap between cultural imperatives and respecting individual resident and client choice.

Discussion We have found that this new model overcomes the boundary of confliction and assists to alleviate many if not all fears and uncertainties pertaining to accommodating residents' and clients' personal wishes regarding their future medical preferences and end of life care.

Conclusion It is proposed that the model developed by Jewish Care Victoria may be helpful for other ethno-specific organisations facing similar challenges regarding a conflict between respecting individual wishes within a national secular framework, whilst having regard to ethnic-religious guiding principles.