Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Dublin Residents

Start with the preferences you want understood

Before preparing written instructions, consider what you want the document to communicate about your health care. The goal is to make your wishes understandable to the people who may need to refer to them. You can use a private set of notes to identify the questions that matter to you and the preferences you want to discuss.

Keep this focused on your own choices. A written directive is a way to express health-care wishes; it is not a substitute for medical advice about which treatment is appropriate for a particular condition.

• Which health-care preferences do you want documented?
• Are there particular concerns or questions you want to discuss with the person you may identify to make decisions?
• Who should know where the completed document is kept?

Separate written instructions from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can do two related but distinct things: express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. You can consider these choices separately. Written instructions communicate preferences; selecting a person addresses who may make decisions on your behalf.

For this page, the practical focus is the first choice: what you want your written instructions to say. If you are also considering whom to identify, that is a separate decision to discuss rather than a reason to leave your preferences unclear. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not health-care decisions.

Use records to make your choices concrete

A short preparation note can help you turn broad intentions into points for discussion. Record the preferences you want considered, the questions you still have, and any wording or topics you want clarified. You might also note who should be told where the directive is kept. These notes are a planning aid, not a legal requirement or a replacement for the directive.

When reviewing your existing papers, distinguish health-care documents from financial planning documents. That makes it easier to identify which document addresses treatment preferences and which concerns financial decisions. Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is separate from registering information about an executed directive.

• Gather any existing health-care directive or related planning papers you want to review.
• Write down the treatment preferences and questions you want to address.
• Make a simple record of where the completed directive will be kept and who should know its location.

Plan for access, not just completion

A document can only communicate your preferences to people who can locate or receive it. Think through who may need access and how they will learn where it is stored. Keep the document in a place you can identify and share its location with the people you want informed.

Preparing and keeping the relevant documents accessible is not the same task as registering information about an executed directive. Consider these as separate steps: first, make and retain the document; then decide whether to register information about it. Registration does not take the place of keeping the document accessible.

A practical next step

Bring your preference notes and any existing documents to a planning discussion. A useful starting question is: “What do I want my written instructions to communicate, and what information would help the people who may need to find them?” From there, you can keep the conversation centered on your treatment preferences while treating selection of a health-care decision-maker as a distinct choice.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Dublin clients through virtual services statewide, with its in-person office in Novato.