Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Huron Residents

Separate your instructions from choosing an agent

A directive can serve two purposes: expressing your health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. You can think about these separately before bringing them together in your planning. This page focuses on the written instructions: what you want others to understand about your preferences if health-care decisions need to be made.

Choosing a person to make decisions is a separate question from describing the care you prefer. Consider what you want your instructions to communicate, then consider who you would want to make decisions. Keeping those questions distinct can make a consultation more focused and help you explain where you have firm preferences and where you want the person you select to use judgment.

Gather your preferences before a consultation

Before a remote consultation, set aside time to consider what you want your written instructions to say. You do not need to arrive with polished legal language. A plain-language outline of your priorities, questions, and uncertainties can help you explain what matters to you. These are preparation prompts, not medical recommendations.

• Write down the care-related preferences you want to communicate, using your own words.
• Note any situations or questions that make a preference difficult to express, so you can discuss the uncertainty rather than leave it unspoken.
• List questions about how written instructions and selecting a decision-maker relate to each other.
• If you already have relevant planning documents, identify what they are and where they are kept. This can help you discuss how the directive fits with your existing plans.

Plan for people to find the document

Preparing a directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are distinct from registering information about an executed directive. For practical preparation, consider who may need to know where your documents are kept and how that person could locate them. A document that cannot readily be found may be harder for others to consult when needed.

You can make a simple list of the people you want to tell where to look, and note where the original or other relevant documents are stored. Discuss any questions about keeping the directive available during your consultation. The focus here is access to the document and information about it, not a substitute for considering what the instructions should say.

Keep health-care planning distinct from financial authority

A financial power of attorney serves a different role from an advance health care directive: it concerns financial matters, while the directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. If you are reviewing more than one document, make a note of which questions concern health care and which concern finances. That distinction can help keep the consultation centered on the document you want to discuss.

For a virtual consultation, prepare your preference outline, questions, and a list of relevant existing documents. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its Novato office. You can use the consultation to discuss how to express your wishes and how to keep the relevant documents accessible.