Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Livingston

Start with the decision your document should communicate

Before focusing on a form, decide what you want your written instructions to accomplish. An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes. That makes the first question about the preferences you want recorded, rather than about choosing a person to speak for you.

Try putting the purpose into a plain-language sentence: what would you want someone reading your directive to understand about your wishes? Use that sentence to keep the document focused. The goal is not to write a medical plan or predict every possible circumstance; it is to give your preferences a clear written place.

• Consider which health-care wishes you want recorded.
• Separate those written instructions from the question of whom to identify for decision-making.
• If you are unsure what a medical choice means for you, discuss the medical question with an appropriate health professional before deciding what to write.

Written wishes and an identified decision-maker are distinct

An advance health care directive can combine two functions: expressing health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. Those functions are related, but they are not interchangeable. Written preferences communicate what you want; identifying a person addresses who may make decisions.

If your immediate concern is choosing that person, treat it as a separate planning question rather than allowing it to replace the work of describing your wishes. If you address both in a directive, give attention to each purpose. This page does not assess who should be selected or advise how a particular medical decision should be made.

Make your preferences concrete before preparing the document

A useful preparation step is to write down the questions you want answered and the preferences you want the directive to convey. For example, you might note a concern that you want reflected in your instructions, then clarify the meaning of that concern before putting it into final wording. This is a way to organize your thoughts, not a legal requirement or medical recommendation.

You can also make a short list of people who may need to know where your directive is kept. That helps connect the document’s purpose with practical access: written wishes can only inform people who can locate the document. Keep the preparation notes distinct from the directive itself so that readers are not left to guess which statements are your instructions.

• Write down the preferences you want to communicate in your own words.
• Note questions that need clarification before you settle on wording.
• Identify who may need to know where the completed document is kept.

Keep the document accessible and distinguish it from financial authority

Preparing the directive and keeping it accessible are practical parts of planning. Consider where the document will be stored and how people who may need it can find it. The California Secretary of State also offers a registry for advance health care directive information. Registry information is a separate matter from preparing and keeping the document accessible; it should not be treated as a substitute for having the relevant document available.

An advance health care directive is not the same as a financial power of attorney. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role, so it does not communicate health-care wishes in place of a directive. If you are organizing more than one planning document, label and store them so their different purposes remain clear.

A focused next step

Bring a list of the health-care preferences you want to express, any points you have not resolved, and a note about where you expect to keep the directive. That gives a planning conversation a concrete starting point: the intended message, the questions still open, and the access plan.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services statewide from its Novato office. A next conversation can focus on how written wishes fit within your planning documents and which questions you still need to address.