Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in San Juan Capistrano

Separate treatment instructions from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and name someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct purposes: instructions communicate your preferences, while naming a decision-maker addresses who may act when decisions are needed. Consider what you want the document to say about each.

This page focuses on communicating treatment preferences. If your main concern is deciding whom to appoint as your health-care agent, make that a separate discussion. A financial power of attorney also has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not health-care decisions.

Prepare your preferences before the remote consultation

A useful starting point is a written list of the care-related wishes you want to discuss. You do not need to arrive with polished legal language. Plain descriptions can help you identify which preferences you want reflected and where you have questions.

Consider collecting:

Before the meeting, you might also note any topics where you are unsure or would like help expressing your preference clearly. These are discussion points, not a substitute for medical advice.

• The treatment preferences you want to communicate, in your own words.
• Questions about how to express those preferences in an advance health care directive.
• Any existing health-care directive or related document you can locate, so the discussion can account for what you already have.
• Where you keep important documents and how the people who may need them could find them.
• Whether you want to discuss naming a health-care decision-maker separately from the treatment instructions.

Plan for accessibility, not just preparation

Preparing a document and keeping it accessible are separate practical steps. Think about where the completed document will be kept and how relevant people could locate it when needed. A document that cannot readily be found may be less useful for communicating your wishes.

You can also ask what information about an executed directive may be registered and how that differs from keeping the document itself accessible. Registration information and the directive are not the same thing; consider both questions when planning how your wishes will be found.

A statewide virtual consultation from the Novato office

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California. San Juan Capistrano residents can prepare for a remote consultation by gathering the preferences and existing documents they want to discuss, then making a short list of questions about communicating and locating their wishes.

A useful next step is to write down the treatment preferences you want to address and identify any uncertainty you would like to discuss. Keep the focus on what you want communicated and how the document can remain accessible; questions about choosing an agent can be raised separately.