Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Selma

Start with the question you need the document to answer

Consider whether your main goal is to record your health-care preferences, name someone to make health-care decisions, or address both. An advance health care directive can do both, but the written instructions and the choice of decision-maker are distinct parts of the planning conversation.

If you already know whom you want to make decisions, concentrate here on what you want that person and others involved in your care to know about your preferences. If your uncertainty is primarily about whom to choose, that is a separate decision from drafting the instructions. Keeping those questions distinct can make it easier to identify what still needs attention.

• Which health-care wishes do you want to communicate in writing?
• Are you trying to record preferences, identify a decision-maker, or do both?
• Who may need access to the relevant document?

Written wishes are not the same as financial authority

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters. One document should not be treated as a substitute for the other simply because both involve planning for a time when you may need help.

As a practical example, someone who wants written health-care preferences and also wants to plan for assistance with financial decisions should identify those as separate planning needs. The example illustrates the difference between the documents; it is not a recommendation about what any particular person should sign.

Make accessibility part of your planning

Preparing a directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. Think about how the people who may need to refer to your wishes could locate the document, and whether your current arrangements make that practical.

A useful preparation step is to note where the document is kept and who may need to know how to find it. This is a practical organizational suggestion, not a legal requirement. Registration and document access are also distinct considerations: recording information about an executed directive does not change the purpose of the written preferences themselves.

• Identify the people who may need to know where the document is kept.
• Consider whether the document would be accessible to those people when they need to refer to your wishes.

Discuss the right planning question

Before discussing a directive, gather the questions you want it to address and consider whether you are also trying to choose a health-care decision-maker. If both topics matter, keep them visible as separate decisions so that the written preferences do not get lost in a conversation focused only on who will act.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including for people in Selma. A useful next step is to discuss whether your planning focus is expressing health-care wishes, identifying someone to make health-care decisions, or organizing both parts of an advance health care directive.