Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Jackson, California

Written wishes and a health-care decision-maker serve different purposes

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. If your main concern is communicating preferences, focus on the instructions you want recorded. If your main concern is who may make decisions, focus on the person you want identified. A directive can address both, but thinking about each purpose separately can help clarify what you want the document to do.

This service focuses on documenting treatment preferences and making the relevant information accessible to people who may need it. Choosing a health-care agent is an important part of the broader directive, but it is a separate decision from writing down your preferences. Consider whether you want to work through both questions or concentrate on the instructions you want communicated.

• What health-care wishes do you want documented?
• Do you also want the directive to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Who should know where the relevant information is kept?

Understand what this document does not cover

A health-care directive is not a substitute for a financial power of attorney. A financial power of attorney serves a different role: it concerns financial matters, while an advance health care directive can address health-care wishes and decision-making. If you want to address both health-care and financial decision-making, treat them as separate planning needs rather than assuming one document handles both.

The directive records wishes and may identify a decision-maker; it does not itself provide medical advice or resolve what treatment is appropriate in a particular situation. Use it to communicate your preferences, and discuss medical questions with the appropriate health-care professionals.

Plan for people to find the information when needed

Preparing a directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is an additional way to record information; it is not the same task as preparing the document or ensuring that people who may need it know where to find it.

Before beginning, make a short list of the preferences you want to communicate and the people who should know where the document is kept. Consider how those people could locate the information when it matters. These practical steps help you focus on the document’s purpose and on access, without treating registration as a replacement for keeping the document available.

• Write down the topics or preferences you want to address.
• Identify the people who should know where to find the relevant information.
• Decide whether recording information about an executed directive is also something you want to consider.

Choose the scope that fits your planning question

If your immediate goal is to communicate treatment preferences, begin with those instructions. If your immediate goal is to select a person for health-care decisions, give that choice deliberate attention as well. If you also need financial decision-making addressed, recognize that it serves a different function and should not be assumed to be covered by the health-care directive.

A useful next step is to organize your questions around these separate purposes: what you want documented, whether you want someone identified to make health-care decisions, and how the relevant information will be accessible. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. can discuss advance health care directives and living wills with clients in Jackson through virtual services.