Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Garden Grove
An advance health care directive can do two different things: express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. If your immediate goal is to put treatment preferences in writing, start by considering what you want communicated and how the relevant document will be available when needed. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California.
Start with the decision you want the document to communicate
Before focusing on forms or storage, ask yourself what you want others to understand about your health-care preferences. The central planning choice for written instructions is what wishes you want recorded, rather than who you want to choose as a decision-maker. An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes; it can also identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions, and thinking about them separately can make your planning more deliberate.
A useful first step is to reflect on your own priorities and make a private, optional note of questions or preferences you may want to discuss with an appropriate health-care professional. This is preparation, not medical advice, and you do not need to treat an informal note as a completed directive. The purpose is to clarify what you want to communicate before you decide how to put it into a formal document.
Keep written instructions distinct from choosing an agent
Written treatment preferences and selection of a health-care decision-maker answer different questions. Instructions communicate your wishes; identifying someone addresses who may make health-care decisions. An advance health care directive can include both, but you can consider the written-instructions question on its own rather than letting the agent-selection decision stand in for your preferences.
This distinction can be useful if you are not ready to settle on an agent, or if you have already considered that choice but still want to clarify what you would like communicated. A discussion about preferences should remain focused on your wishes. A discussion about a potential agent concerns a different role and should not be mistaken for a financial role: a financial power of attorney serves a different purpose.
Make the preferences concrete for your own planning
You can prepare by writing down, in ordinary language, the preferences and questions you want to remember. Consider whether your notes express what matters to you clearly enough that another person could understand the topic you want to discuss. Keep any such notes as optional preparation; they do not replace an advance health care directive.
If you already have relevant documents, you may wish to gather them before discussing whether your written instructions reflect your current wishes. This is a practical way to make the conversation more focused, not a legal requirement. Where a document also identifies a health-care decision-maker, note that this is a separate function from expressing treatment preferences.
Plan for access as well as preparation
Preparing an advance health care directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. The California Secretary of State describes a registry for advance health care directive information, but registration information is not the same thing as preparing the document itself.
As a practical preparation step, consider who may need to know where your relevant documents are kept and how they could find them. You can also make a note of questions about access to raise when reviewing your planning. The aim is to think ahead about availability, rather than assume that preparing a document alone tells others where to locate it.
Discuss the document and your next planning step
A focused conversation can begin with two questions: what health-care wishes do you want expressed, and how do you want relevant documents to be available to the people who may need them? If you are also considering who should make health-care decisions, keep that choice distinct from the content of your written preferences. An advance health care directive can address both, while a financial power of attorney has a different financial role.
Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its one in-person office in Novato. For a planning discussion, you may optionally gather existing relevant documents and a short list of preferences or questions you want to address. No particular preparation is necessary to begin a conversation.
Questions to discuss
What is the difference between written health-care wishes and naming someone to make decisions?
Written wishes communicate your health-care preferences. Identifying someone addresses who may make health-care decisions. An advance health care directive can do both, but the two functions are distinct, so you can consider the instructions separately from the choice of a decision-maker.
Does registering information about a directive prepare the document or make it accessible automatically?
Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration information is a separate consideration; you should also think about how the people who may need the documents can learn where they are kept.
Official resources
General information, not an assessment of your documents or circumstances. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and offers virtual services across California. A remote consultation does not itself authorize remote signing or a remote court appearance.
