Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in San Joaquin, Fresno County

Separate written preferences from choosing an agent

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions: one communicates your preferences, while the other identifies a person who may make decisions. This page focuses on preparing to discuss written preferences, rather than selecting or evaluating an agent.

A financial power of attorney serves a different, financial role. If you have financial documents as well as health-care documents, identifying each document’s purpose can help keep the conversation focused. One document should not be treated as a substitute for another simply because both are part of your planning.

• Consider whether your main questions concern expressing treatment preferences, identifying a health-care decision-maker, or understanding how those functions differ.
• If you already have documents, make a list of their names or descriptions as you understand them.

Collect your thoughts before a remote consultation

You do not need to arrive with polished legal language. As an optional preparation step, write a few notes in your own words about the care-related preferences or concerns you would like to discuss. Include questions, areas of uncertainty, and any circumstances you think may affect how you view a choice. The purpose is to help you explain what you want to address, not to make a medical decision or complete a document on your own.

If you have an existing advance health care directive, set aside the copy you can locate. You can also note when you last looked at it and what, if anything, you want to clarify. If you do not have written preferences yet, you can simply say that; the conversation can begin with your questions rather than a completed draft.

• Make a short list of preferences you consider clear and points you are unsure about.
• Write down the questions you want answered, including any concern about how written wishes relate to a decision-maker.
• Gather copies of existing health-care or financial documents if readily available; note where other copies may be kept.

Think about how the document can be found

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is different from registering information about an executed advance health care directive. Registration relates to information about a directive that has been executed; it is not the same task as preparing the directive or making sure relevant people can locate it.

As a practical preparation step, consider where you intend to keep any document and who you may want to tell about its location. You can ask what registration does and whether it is relevant to your situation rather than assuming it creates or replaces your written instructions. Keeping these questions distinct can make the next steps easier to understand.

• Note where an existing document is kept and who, if anyone, already knows how to find it.
• Add any questions about registration to your consultation list.

Use the consultation to clarify what you want recorded

A useful discussion can start with the preferences you want to communicate, the questions you have, and whether you are also considering who should make health-care decisions. You can keep those topics separate without deciding everything in advance. The key distinction is that an advance health care directive can include both health-care wishes and identification of someone to make decisions, while a financial power of attorney has a different financial role.

For a remote consultation, gather your notes and any existing documents in one place. Then identify the one or two issues you most want to clarify first. That makes the conversation practical even if your preferences are still developing. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services statewide from its Novato office.