Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Woodlake Residents
An advance health care directive can record your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California.
Clarify what you want the document to do
Before relying on a directive, separate two purposes that may appear in the same document: expressing your health-care wishes and naming someone to make health-care decisions. Consider what you want written instructions to communicate, and whether you also want a person identified to act on your behalf.
This page focuses on documenting treatment preferences and making the relevant information available. Choosing the person who may make decisions is a separate question to consider deliberately. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care decisions.
- What wishes do you want recorded for others to consult?
- Do you also want to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
- Are you keeping health-care decision-making separate from financial authority?
Make your preferences understandable to the people who may need them
A written preference can only help guide a conversation if the relevant people can find and understand the document. Think about who should know that it exists, where you intend to keep it, and how those people could access it when needed. These are practical planning questions, not a substitute for deciding what your wishes should say.
You might prepare a short, nonbinding note for yourself identifying the document’s location and the people you expect to tell about it. Keep the note consistent with the actual document, and revisit it if you move the document or change whom you have informed.
- Where will the directive be kept?
- Who needs to know where it is?
- How will you let those people know if the document’s location changes?
Keep document access distinct from registry information
Preparing and keeping the relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration of information and access to the document itself are not the same task. Do not assume that recording information about a directive means the people who may need it can locate the document.
When reviewing your plan, consider both questions separately: where the document is, and whether you want to register information about an executed directive. The practical goal is to make the actual document findable by the people you expect may need it.
Review the plan when your circumstances or preferences change
A useful review starts with the document’s purpose: do the written preferences still reflect what you want communicated, and do the people you expect to rely on the document know how to find it? Also reconsider whether the person identified to make health-care decisions is still the person you want in that role.
These questions help distinguish a change in treatment preferences from a change in the person selected to make decisions. If you want help organizing those issues or understanding how the directive relates to other planning documents, contact Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. to discuss your situation.
Questions to discuss
Does an advance health care directive only state treatment preferences?
It can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Consider those as distinct functions when deciding what you want the document to communicate and whom you want to identify.
Is registering information about a directive the same as keeping the document accessible?
No. Preparing and keeping the relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Consider how the people who may need the directive will find the document itself.
Official resources
General information, not an assessment of your documents or circumstances. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and offers virtual services across California. A remote consultation does not itself authorize remote signing or a remote court appearance.
