Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Tulare

Begin with the decision your instructions should express

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. This page focuses on the written-wishes part: what matters to you, and what you want the people involved in your care to understand. Choosing a person to make decisions is a related but distinct consideration.

Before drafting or revising instructions, consider what you want them to communicate about the care you would want or would not want in circumstances important to you. You do not have to begin with legal terminology. Start with your priorities and the questions you would want addressed, then consider how clearly a written directive can express them.

• Which preferences do you most want others to understand?
• Are there situations or concerns that make a particular preference especially important to you?
• What would you want a decision-maker to know about your values if your written instructions do not address a particular question?

Make your preferences concrete before preparing the document

A useful preparation step is to make a private list of the concerns and preferences you want your instructions to address. For example, you might note questions you would like to discuss with your health-care provider and describe, in your own words, what quality of life or personal priorities mean to you. These are prompts for organizing your thoughts, not medical recommendations or a substitute for discussing medical questions with a qualified provider.

Bring that list together with any existing health-care planning documents you want to review. Consider whether the current wording still reflects your wishes and whether there are points you want clarified. The goal is to make your preferences understandable, rather than to assume that a general statement will answer every question that may arise.

Keep written instructions distinct from other planning roles

An advance health care directive may include both health-care wishes and identification of a person to make health-care decisions. Thinking through the two functions separately can help you avoid overlooking either one: what you want communicated in writing, and whom you want involved in decisions.

A financial power of attorney serves a different role involving financial matters; it is not a substitute for health-care instructions. If you are reviewing several planning documents, identify what each is meant to address instead of assuming that one document covers every kind of decision.

Plan how people can find the information

Preparing a directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible are distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Think practically about who may need to know that your instructions exist and where the relevant document can be found. You can make a simple record of its location and consider sharing that information with the people you expect may need it.

Registration does not replace the document itself or the practical task of making it accessible. When reviewing your arrangements, check whether the people who may need your instructions know where to look, and whether the document still reflects your preferences.