Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Willits Residents

Decide what you want the document to communicate

A useful starting point is to consider the health-care wishes you want recorded. An advance health care directive can express those wishes. The point of written instructions is to communicate your preferences; they are not the same thing as selecting a person to make health-care decisions.

You do not need to resolve every question before beginning a planning conversation. You can make a list of preferences you want to discuss, including any areas where you are unsure how to express your wishes. Keep the focus on what you want communicated, rather than assuming a written preference answers every question that could arise.

• What health-care wishes do you want the document to express?
• Are there preferences or questions you want to discuss before deciding what to record?
• How might the written instructions communicate what matters to you?

Consider separately who may make health-care decisions

An advance health care directive can also identify someone to make health-care decisions. This is a distinct function from recording your wishes. Think about the role you want the document to address, and consider whom you may want it to identify. The relevant question here is health-care decision-making, not financial planning.

If you are weighing both written preferences and a person to identify, consider each deliberately. The directive can address both, but one purpose should not be mistaken for the other: instructions communicate your wishes, while identification names someone for health-care decisions. Choosing whom to identify is a personal planning question; a list of candidates and questions may help you prepare to discuss it.

Keep access and registration as separate considerations

Preparing a directive and keeping it accessible to people who may need it are practical parts of planning. Consider how those people would learn that the document exists and where you keep it. Making the location easy to communicate can help others find the written preferences when they need to refer to them.

Registering information about an executed directive is a separate consideration from preparing the document and keeping it accessible. Registration does not replace thinking through who should know about the document or how it can be found. You may want to consider whether registration is relevant to your plan while keeping those access questions in view.

• As an optional organizational step, note where you keep the document.
• Consider whom you want to tell about its location.
• Keep any question about registration distinct from document preparation and access.

Keep health-care planning distinct from financial planning

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and can identify someone to make health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. These documents address different planning purposes, so a conversation about treatment preferences should not be treated as a conversation about financial authority.

If you have questions about both health-care and financial matters, list them separately. That helps clarify what you want each document or planning discussion to address without assuming that a health-care directive covers financial decisions. This distinction concerns the roles of the documents; it does not, by itself, resolve every question about a person's authority in a particular situation.

Prepare for a focused planning discussion

Before a discussion, you may find it useful to write down the preferences you want the directive to express, the questions you have about identifying someone for health-care decisions, and how the document could be kept accessible. These are optional preparation steps, not legal requirements. If financial planning is also on your mind, keep those questions in a separate list.

For someone in Willits considering this planning, a practical next step is to bring those topics together in one outline while keeping their purposes distinct: written health-care wishes, identification of a health-care decision-maker, access to the document, and any separate financial-planning questions. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. offers virtual services statewide for people considering these issues.