Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Arroyo Grande Residents

Start with the question the document needs to answer

Before relying on a document, clarify what role you expect it to serve. An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related purposes, but written instructions and choosing a decision-maker are not the same task. A document that states preferences does not, by that fact alone, tell your family which person you want to make decisions.

Consider what you want the document to communicate about your care, and separately whom you want involved if decisions must be made. If your main concern is choosing a health-care agent, focus on that selection rather than assuming that written treatment preferences settle it. If your concern is recording preferences, make sure the instructions are clear enough for the people who may need to find and understand them.

• Ask yourself whether you are trying to communicate care preferences, identify a decision-maker, or address both.
• Separate questions about what you want from questions about who should make decisions.

Make written preferences usable by the people who may need them

A document can only help communicate your wishes if the relevant people can locate it. As a practical preparation step, make a list of where you keep important documents and who should know how to access that information. Consider how a family member or other person involved in your care would find the directive when it is needed.

You can also write down questions you want to resolve before relying on the document: Which preferences do you want recorded? Who should know where the document is kept? Is there anyone you want to tell about its contents? These are planning prompts, not legal or medical rules. The purpose is to make your wishes easier to communicate and the document easier to locate.

• Identify a practical place for the directive and note who should know how to find it.
• Prepare a short list of preferences or questions you want to clarify before documenting your wishes.

Keep health-care instructions distinct from financial authority

A financial power of attorney serves a different role: it concerns financial matters, rather than expressing health-care wishes or identifying someone to make health-care decisions. If you are sorting through several planning documents, label the question each one addresses. Do not assume that a document intended for financial decisions communicates health-care instructions.

This distinction can help a family avoid looking to the wrong document when trying to understand your preferences or identify the person connected with health-care decisions. If you are uncertain which planning question remains unresolved, list it separately before discussing your documents.

• Keep health-care questions and financial-authority questions in separate notes.
• When reviewing documents, identify the role each one is intended to serve.

Plan for both preparation and access

Preparing a directive and keeping it accessible are separate parts of planning. California’s court self-help information distinguishes preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is therefore not a substitute for making sure the people who may need the document know how to locate it.

A useful next step is to gather the planning documents you already have and write down what you want each one to accomplish. Bring your questions about treatment preferences, access, and the distinction between health-care and financial documents to a planning discussion. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Arroyo Grande clients virtually from its Novato-based practice.