Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Larkspur

Decide what you want the document to do

Start by separating two questions. What health-care wishes do you want communicated? And do you want to identify someone to make health-care decisions? An advance health care directive can address both, but the two functions are not interchangeable. Someone may need to understand your written preferences; an identified person may have a decision-making role when decisions must be made.

This page focuses on documenting treatment preferences and making them available to people who may need them. Choosing who should act as your health-care agent is a separate decision. Consider your preferences and agent selection together if useful, but do not assume that writing instructions alone identifies a decision-maker—or that naming an agent fully explains the choices you would want that person to consider.

• List the treatment preferences you want to communicate.
• Separately consider whether you want to identify someone to make health-care decisions.
• Think about who may need to find or understand the written information.

Understand what this document does not replace

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different role: financial matters. Do not rely on a health-care directive to communicate financial authority, or treat a financial power of attorney as a statement of treatment preferences.

The practical question is whether your planning covers the different decisions you want addressed. If you want to plan for both health-care and financial matters, identify them as separate needs and discuss the appropriate documents for each. This distinction helps avoid expecting one document to do work assigned to another.

Make accessibility part of the plan

Preparing a directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are practical parts of planning. A document that cannot readily be found may be less useful to the people who need to refer to it. Before finalizing your plan, consider where the information will be kept and how the people who may need it will know where to look.

Registering information about an executed directive is distinct from preparing the document and keeping it accessible. Registration is not a substitute for thinking through where relevant documents can be found. Consider both tasks separately, and discuss whether registration fits your circumstances.

• Identify a place where relevant documents can be located.
• Consider which people may need to know where the information is kept.
• Treat document preparation, accessibility, and registration as separate planning questions.

Prepare for a focused planning conversation

Before a planning conversation, write down the treatment preferences you want reflected and any points you are uncertain about. You can also note whether you are considering an agent, since the written instructions and agent choice address different functions. These are preparation steps, not legal requirements.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves Larkspur clients virtually from its Novato office. A focused discussion can help you identify what you want the directive to communicate, how it relates to your separate agent-selection decision, and how you plan to make the relevant documents accessible.

Choose the scope that fits your decision

If your immediate goal is to record treatment preferences, focus the conversation on what you want communicated and how others can find it. If your question is primarily who should make health-care decisions, address agent selection directly rather than treating written preferences as a substitute. If you also want to address finances, recognize that a financial power of attorney serves a separate role.

The useful next step is to identify which of these decisions you want to address and gather your questions before discussing the documents. Keeping the scope clear makes it easier to distinguish the directive’s purpose from the separate choices about an agent, finances, and document accessibility.