Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Needles

Start with the purpose of the document

Consider what you want a written document to accomplish: record health-care wishes, name someone to make health-care decisions, or address both. An advance health care directive can do both. Thinking about these purposes separately helps you notice whether the document says what you intend and whether it identifies the person you expect to act.

This page focuses on expressing treatment preferences and making the written information available. Choosing a health-care agent is a separate decision: consider whom you want to make decisions, while keeping the substance of your own wishes clear. A financial power of attorney has a different role; it concerns financial decisions rather than health-care decisions.

• What wishes do you want recorded in writing?
• Do you also want to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Are you discussing health-care choices, rather than financial authority?

Make the instructions understandable to the people who may need them

A document can only help communicate your preferences if the people who may need to refer to it can locate it. Think through who should know that it exists and where you intend to keep it. Make the location easy to explain, and consider how the relevant people would find the document if you could not direct them to it yourself.

As a practical preparation step, write down where the document is kept and who you expect to know about it. You can also consider whether the people you have identified can access the information. These are planning prompts, not legal formalities. Keeping the relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive.

• Identify who should know that the directive exists.
• Choose a location you can communicate clearly.
• Consider whether the people you expect to rely on the document can find it.

Treat document access and registry information as separate steps

California offers a registry for advance health care directive information. Preparing the directive and keeping the document accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. When planning, clarify which step you have taken and which information the people involved still need.

Do not assume that noting or registering information about a document, by itself, makes the written instructions available to the people who may need them. Plan how they can locate the document as well as how they can learn where information about it is recorded. The aim is to reduce uncertainty about where the instructions are, not to replace the instructions with a record of their location.

Review the document's purpose and your next steps

Before relying on a directive, ask whether it reflects the health-care wishes you want written down, whether it identifies a decision-maker if that is your intention, and whether the people who may need it can find it. If your concern is financial authority, distinguish that issue from health-care instructions; a financial power of attorney serves a different role.

A useful next step is to gather the document, note where it is kept, and make a short list of questions about its purpose, accessibility, and any registry information. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. can discuss estate-planning documents virtually throughout California from its Novato office. A focused conversation can help you identify what you want clarified without confusing written treatment preferences with the separate choice of a health-care decision-maker.