Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Albany

Separate written wishes from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can serve two related purposes: expressing your health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. Think about these as distinct choices. You may have treatment preferences you want recorded, and you may also want to identify a person to act when decisions need to be made.

For a consultation focused on written instructions, start by describing the preferences you want to discuss. Separately consider whether you want the directive to identify someone to make decisions. This page is about documenting treatment preferences and accessibility, not a full guide to choosing an agent. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, rather than health-care decisions.

• What health-care preferences do you want to raise for discussion?
• Do you also want to discuss identifying someone to make health-care decisions?
• Are you treating financial authority as a separate planning question?

Prepare for a focused remote consultation

Before meeting remotely, write a short outline in your own words of the preferences you want to discuss. You might organize it around questions or situations that matter to you, without trying to turn those notes into medical instructions. The purpose is to help you explain what you want the document to communicate and identify points that remain unclear.

Also note whether you have an existing advance health care directive or other planning documents, and whether you know where they are kept. You can prepare questions about how your written wishes and any identified decision-maker fit together. These are useful topics to raise, not a prescribed checklist or a claim that any particular document is required.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Albany. For a remote consultation, you can organize your notes and questions in advance and ask how to share any existing documents through an appropriate channel.

• Write down the preferences and questions you want to discuss.
• Make a note of any existing directive and where it is kept, if known.
• Keep questions about health-care wishes distinct from questions about financial authority.

Consider how the document will be found

Preparing a directive is not the same task as making it accessible to the people who may need it. Consider who should know where the relevant document is kept and how they could locate it when needed. A document that is difficult to find may be less useful to the people trying to understand your recorded wishes.

California provides an Advance Health Care Directive Registry. Registry information relates to an executed directive; registering information is distinct from preparing and keeping the document accessible. If you want to discuss the registry, ask how it relates to your own arrangements and what information you would need to consider. Do not treat registry information as a substitute for thinking about where the document itself can be found.

• Consider who should know where the directive is kept.
• Ask whether registry information is relevant to your plans.
• Keep the accessibility question separate from the question of what your directive says.

Use the consultation to clarify the document’s purpose

A productive discussion can begin with the outcome you want: a written expression of health-care wishes, identification of someone to make health-care decisions, or both. Bring forward the points you are uncertain about rather than assuming that a general description captures your preferences. You can also ask how to keep the document available to those who may need to consult it.

This planning document concerns health-care wishes and decision-making. It does not serve the financial role of a financial power of attorney. If your questions involve financial authority as well, identify that as a separate topic so the purpose of each document remains clear. The practical next step is to gather your notes, any existing directive you can locate, and the questions you want answered for a virtual consultation.