Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Moorpark

Start with the preferences you want communicated

An advance health care directive may express health-care wishes. Use your preparation time to identify the preferences you want the document to communicate, rather than trying to anticipate every possible situation. A clear starting point is to ask what you most want others to understand about your wishes if you cannot explain them yourself.

You might make a private list of topics or questions you want to discuss before putting instructions into a document. For example, you may want to identify which preferences feel especially important to express. This is an optional way to prepare, not a legal requirement or medical recommendation. The aim is to make your intended message easier to discuss and understand.

• Which health-care preferences do you most want to communicate?
• Are there instructions you want to make especially clear?
• What questions remain about how to express your wishes?

Treat written wishes and the decision-maker choice as separate questions

An advance health care directive may also identify someone to make health-care decisions. That possible function is distinct from expressing treatment preferences: written instructions communicate what matters to you, while identifying a person addresses who may make decisions. Consider the two questions separately, even if you are considering them in the same document.

This page focuses on documenting preferences and making the document accessible, not on how to select a health-care agent. If you have already identified a person, consider what you want that person to understand from your written instructions. If you have not settled that choice, you can keep it as a separate question while clarifying your preferences.

• What do you want the written instructions to communicate, regardless of who may make decisions?
• If someone is identified to make decisions, what preferences would you want that person to understand?
• Which questions about the person to identify should be addressed separately?

Plan for access as well as preparation

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. These are separate parts of planning; registration does not itself describe the contents of your instructions.

As an optional organizational step, think about who may need to know where the directive is kept and how they would find it. You can note any uncertainty about the document’s location, which version you mean to rely on, or how relevant people will learn where it is stored. The practical question is whether your arrangement makes the document accessible to the people who may need it.

• Make a list of people who may need to know where the directive is kept.
• Consider whether your chosen storage arrangement will be easy for them to find.
• Note any questions about access or which document you intend to use.

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 may address health-care wishes and decision-making; the financial power of attorney concerns financial matters. Because the documents serve different purposes, having one does not answer whether you have addressed the other.

When reviewing your planning papers, ask what each document is intended to address. If you have both kinds of documents, consider whether they are clearly identified by purpose and whether the relevant people can access the document they may need. This distinction can help prevent confusion between health-care instructions and financial authority.

• Which document addresses health-care wishes or decisions?
• Which document addresses financial matters?
• Do you know how the relevant people can access each document?

Prepare for a planning conversation

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 Moorpark. To prepare for a conversation, you may gather the directive or draft you want to discuss, make a note of the preferences you want it to communicate, and list any questions about access or the document’s purpose.

A useful next step is to identify what is clear and what remains uncertain: the instructions you want expressed, whether the document also identifies a decision-maker, and how the relevant document can be found. Keeping those questions distinct can make it easier to discuss your written preferences without confusing them with financial documents or the separate decision of whom to identify.