Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Los Angeles

Start with what has changed

A useful review begins with the difference between your present circumstances and the choices recorded in your existing plan. Consider what has changed in your health-care preferences, the people involved in your care, or the practical arrangements for locating your documents. These are prompts for reflection, not medical recommendations.

As you review the document, ask whether its written instructions still express the preferences you want communicated. If the answer is no, identify the parts that need attention and the questions you want to resolve before relying on the plan. The goal is a document that reflects your wishes and can be found by the people who may need it.

• What preferences in the document no longer feel accurate?
• Who may need to know where the current document is kept?
• Is the document you can readily locate the one you intend people to use?

Separate instructions 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: written instructions communicate preferences, while naming a person identifies who may make decisions.

If your immediate concern is what treatment preferences the document should communicate, focus on those instructions. If the concern is who should make decisions, consider that separately. You do not need to treat one question as a substitute for the other.

A financial power of attorney serves a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care decisions. Keeping that distinction in mind can help you identify which document and questions are relevant to the change you are considering.

Prepare for a focused review

Before discussing revisions, gather the advance directive you currently have and make a short list of the preferences or circumstances that prompted you to reconsider it. Note any points that are unclear or that you want to discuss. This preparation can keep the conversation centered on your written instructions and the practical problem of making the current document accessible.

For example, if you have moved and are unsure whether anyone involved in your care can locate your directive, you might bring the document and make a plan to share where it is kept. That example is a preparation prompt, not a statement about any particular person's situation or a legal requirement.

• Bring the document you currently regard as your advance directive.
• Write down the changes you want the document to reflect.
• Identify who should know where the current document is kept.

Make the current document accessible

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is different from registering information about an executed advance health care directive. Registration is not the same task as deciding what your instructions should say or making the document available to people who may need it.

As part of your review, consider how the people who may need the directive will know where to find it, and whether the document you can locate is the version you intend to rely on. If circumstances change again, revisit both the instructions and the practical arrangements for access.

Choose the next step

If the written preferences no longer match what you want communicated, identify the points to address and arrange a focused review of the directive. If the instructions still reflect your wishes but the document may be hard to find, concentrate first on access and on letting relevant people know where it is kept.

If both concerns apply, list them separately so the written preferences and the document’s availability each receive attention. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California for people in Los Angeles considering these planning questions.