Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for San Rafael Residents

Start with the purpose of the document

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions. If your immediate goal is to document treatment preferences, focus first on what you want written instructions to communicate. If your goal is to identify a decision-maker, recognize that as a separate part of the directive rather than assuming that written preferences alone select someone.

A practical starting point is to ask what you want a family member or other person involved in your care to be able to understand from the document. You might make a private list of questions or topics you want to discuss with the people who may need to find or use your instructions. That preparation is not a substitute for making the document itself, but it can help you identify what you want to clarify.

• What health-care preferences do you want to put in writing?
• Do you also want the directive to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Who should know where the document can be found?

Keep instructions and decision-making roles distinct

Written health-care wishes and authority to make health-care decisions are not interchangeable concepts. An advance health care directive can address both, but thinking about them separately can make the document’s purpose clearer to you and to the people you discuss it with. This page focuses on documenting preferences; choosing a health-care agent involves a separate decision about whom to identify.

Also distinguish health-care planning from financial planning. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not the health-care function described here. A family should not assume that a financial document communicates treatment preferences or identifies a health-care decision-maker.

• Treat written health-care preferences as instructions about your wishes.
• Consider separately whether the directive should identify someone to make health-care decisions.
• Do not confuse a financial power of attorney with a health-care directive.

Plan for people to find the information

A document can only be useful to the people who need to consult it if they can locate it. As a practical preparation step, consider where you will keep the relevant documents and which people should know how to access them. You can also discuss what the document is intended to communicate, so family members are not left to guess whether it contains your preferences, identifies a decision-maker, or addresses both.

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is different from registering information about an executed directive. The California Secretary of State’s registry information describes registration as a separate step from preparing and keeping documents available. Registration should not be mistaken for a replacement for the underlying document or for the task of making it accessible to people who may need it.

• Decide where the directive and related documents will be kept.
• Tell the relevant people how to find them.
• Be clear about whether the document records preferences, identifies a decision-maker, or does both.

Clarify the plan before relying on it

Before relying on a document as part of a family plan, consider whether its purpose is clear, whether the people who may need it know where it is, and whether you have addressed both written preferences and the decision-maker question. These are useful points for discussion, not a claim that a particular form or storage arrangement is legally required.

A next step is to gather any existing health-care or financial documents and note what you want to clarify about each. If you need help understanding how a directive can express wishes and identify a decision-maker, or how that differs from a financial power of attorney, contact Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. to discuss your planning questions.