Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Chula Vista Residents

Put your treatment preferences into words

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. The written instructions and the choice of a decision-maker are related, but they serve different purposes: one records preferences, while the other identifies who may make decisions.

For this planning conversation, focus on what you want the document to communicate about care. Consider what matters most to you, which concerns you want addressed, and how you would like those preferences explained to the person who may be involved in decisions. The goal is to make your wishes understandable, rather than to predict every possible medical situation.

Prepare for a remote consultation

A little preparation can make a virtual meeting more focused. Gather any existing advance health care directive or other written material that states your health-care preferences. If you have not prepared a document, jot down the questions and priorities you want to discuss instead.

You may also note whether there are particular topics you find difficult to address, or whether you want help distinguishing written instructions from the separate choice of a health-care decision-maker. These are preparation ideas, not prerequisites to a consultation.

• Collect any existing directive or written statement of your health-care preferences.
• Make a short list of care-related priorities and questions you want to discuss.
• Note where relevant documents are kept and who currently knows how to find them.

Make the document usable when it may be needed

Preparing a directive is only part of the practical task. California court self-help information distinguishes preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible from registering information about an executed directive. In other words, a record of registration and the document itself are not the same thing.

Think through how the people who may need to refer to your preferences could learn where the document is kept. You can discuss ways to keep it accessible and whether information about an executed directive should be registered. Accessibility matters because a preference that cannot readily be found may be harder for others to consult.

Keep health-care instructions separate from financial authority

A financial power of attorney serves a different role from an advance health care directive. The directive concerns health-care wishes and may identify someone to make health-care decisions; the financial document concerns financial matters. Treating them as interchangeable can leave an important planning question unclear.

Before the consultation, gather any financial power of attorney you already have if you want to clarify how it differs from your health-care planning documents. You can then identify which document addresses which concern without assuming that one covers the other.

Choose a useful next step

Start by deciding whether your main task is to put treatment preferences in writing, make an existing document easier to locate, or understand how written instructions differ from naming a decision-maker. Bring your notes and any relevant documents to a virtual consultation. That gives the discussion a clear focus and helps identify what you still need to clarify.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California from its in-person office in Novato. Chula Vista residents can use a remote consultation to discuss documenting and communicating health-care preferences.