Advance Health Care Directives in El Granada, San Mateo County

Start with the decision about your preferences

Consider first what you want your written instructions to communicate about health care. An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those functions can appear in the same document, but they answer different questions: what preferences should be recorded, and who should make decisions when needed.

This page focuses on documenting treatment preferences, not on how to choose or assess a health-care agent. If you are still deciding who should speak for you, treat that as a separate planning question. A financial power of attorney is different again: it serves a financial role, rather than recording health-care preferences or assigning health-care decision-making authority.

• What preferences would you want another person to understand if you could not communicate them?
• Are there particular situations or concerns you want to discuss with your health-care professional before putting your wishes in writing?
• Is selecting a health-care decision-maker a separate task you need to address?

Make the written instructions concrete

Broad statements can be difficult for other people to interpret. Before a planning conversation, write down the situations you are thinking about, the kinds of care or outcomes you want to discuss, and any questions whose answers may affect what you want recorded. These notes are preparation, not a substitute for medical advice or a decision made with your clinician.

For example, someone might be weighing how to describe preferences about a serious illness or an inability to communicate. That is only an illustration of a planning question, not a recommendation about which treatment to choose. The goal is to make your own concerns clear enough to discuss and document in a way that reflects your wishes.

• Bring a short list of preferences and uncertainties rather than relying on memory during a planning discussion.
• Identify which parts of your wishes feel clear and which need further discussion.
• Keep the focus on health-care instructions; financial instructions belong to a different planning document.

Plan for people to find the document

Preparing a directive and making the relevant information accessible are separate practical concerns. Think about which people may need to know that the document exists and where they can find it. A carefully considered document may be less useful if the people involved cannot locate it when they need to refer to it.

California’s court self-help information distinguishes keeping relevant documents accessible from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is not the same task as preparing the document or sharing where it can be found. Consider how you will keep the document and communicate its location to the people who may need it.

• Make a simple record of where the directive is kept.
• Consider who should know how to locate it.
• Keep health-care instructions distinct from financial documents so the different purposes are clear.

Get help with the planning questions

A planning discussion can help separate the choices you are making: what treatment preferences to express, whether to identify a health-care decision-maker, and how to keep the document accessible. Bring your notes and questions so the discussion can focus on what you want the written instructions to convey.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. is located at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California. El Granada is an unincorporated community; the firm’s Novato office is its physical office, not a branch in El Granada. Contact the firm to discuss whether help with an advance health care directive fits your planning needs.