Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Whittier Residents

Begin with the purpose of the document

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. These are related, but distinct, purposes: your written instructions communicate what matters to you, while naming a person addresses who may make decisions.

This page focuses on expressing and sharing treatment preferences. If your main question is whom to appoint as a health-care decision-maker, consider that separately from the wording of your preferences.

Turn your preferences into useful guidance

Before discussing wording, think about the values you would want reflected in health-care decisions. For example, you might consider which aspects of quality of life matter most to you, what concerns you would want discussed, and what questions you would want a decision-maker to keep in mind. These are prompts for your own reflection, not medical recommendations.

Aim for guidance that helps another person understand what is important to you rather than relying on assumptions. If a preference is difficult to explain, note the question you want to discuss with your chosen decision-maker or health-care professional. Your personal preparation notes can help organize that conversation; they are not a substitute for documenting wishes in the directive.

• Write down the preferences or values you want the document to communicate.
• Identify questions that need clarification before you settle on wording.
• Consider who should know where the completed directive is kept.

Check whether the issue is health care or finances

Ask which kind of authority you are trying to address. An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role; it is not a substitute for a health-care directive.

That distinction can change your next step. If your concern is who may handle financial matters, focus on financial planning rather than treating health-care instructions as financial authority. If your concern is treatment preferences, keep the discussion centered on what you want communicated about health care.

Make the document findable when it may be needed

Preparing a directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. A document that expresses your wishes can only help others understand them if the people who may need it know where to look.

As a practical preparation step, decide where to keep the directive and whom to tell about its location. You can also make a short list of people who should know how to find it. This is a way to organize access, not a claim that registration or any particular storage choice guarantees someone will locate or follow the document.

• Choose a place where the directive can be found when needed.
• Tell the relevant people where it is kept.
• Keep your own notes about questions or preferences separate from the directive itself.

Planning from Whittier

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California. Whittier residents can use virtual service to discuss how their health-care preferences should be documented and how the directive fits with other planning documents.

A useful next step is to identify whether your priority is expressing treatment preferences, deciding who should make health-care decisions, or addressing financial authority. Bring your questions and any planning documents you want to discuss so the conversation can focus on the issue you are trying to solve.