Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Yucaipa Residents

Start with the purpose of the document

An advance health care directive can serve two related but distinct purposes: expressing your health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. This page focuses on documenting treatment preferences and thinking about how those instructions can be found when needed. Choosing the person who may make decisions is a separate consideration; you do not have to settle that question in order to begin collecting your preferences.

A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care preferences. Keeping those purposes distinct can help you identify what you want to discuss rather than assuming one document addresses every kind of decision.

Prepare for a remote conversation

Before meeting virtually, make a short, private set of notes about the treatment preferences you want considered. You might describe what matters most to you when decisions are being made, the kinds of situations you are concerned about, and any questions you have about expressing those preferences. These are prompts for your own reflection, not medical recommendations or a prescribed list of instructions.

If you already have written health-care instructions or related documents, keep them available for the conversation. You can also note what feels unclear or out of date. Preparing the materials that explain your wishes can make it easier to discuss how those wishes should be represented; it does not require you to make a medical decision during the consultation.

• Write down the preferences and questions you want to raise.
• Gather any existing health-care documents you want to discuss.
• Note who should know where relevant documents can be found.

Plan for access, not just preparation

A document can express your wishes, but the people who may need to act on it also need to know how to locate the relevant information. Consider who should be told where your health-care directive is kept and how that information can be reached when it matters. Keeping the document accessible is a practical step distinct from registering information about an executed directive.

California provides an Advance Health Care Directive Registry. Registry information is separate from preparing and keeping the relevant documents accessible. During a consultation, you can ask whether learning about registration is relevant to your situation and how it relates to your own plans for sharing the document.

Discuss the right questions for your situation

A useful consultation can clarify how your stated preferences and the person you may identify to make decisions fit within an advance health care directive. You can bring questions about how to communicate your wishes clearly, how to keep the document available to the people who may need it, and whether registry information merits further discussion.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Yucaipa. A next step is to gather your notes and any existing health-care documents, then arrange a consultation to discuss the questions that remain.