Advance Health Care Directives in Mountain View, Contra Costa County

Start with the decision the document should record

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. This page focuses on the written-wishes part: what preferences do you want recorded, and how can the people involved locate that information? A living will is commonly discussed in connection with written treatment preferences, but the California Courts describe the advance health care directive as a document that can both state wishes and identify a decision-maker.

Before drafting or revising instructions, consider which preferences you want to put into words and what circumstances or concerns make them important to you. You do not have to resolve every medical question in advance to begin that conversation. If you are uncertain what a treatment choice means for your health, ask a qualified medical professional; legal planning does not replace medical advice.

• What wishes do you want the document to communicate?
• Are there particular concerns, values, or prior conversations that would help explain those wishes?
• Which people should know where the document is kept?

Keep instructions and agent selection separate

Written preferences and choosing an agent answer related but distinct questions. The preferences record what you want known. Naming someone addresses who may make health-care decisions. You can consider the instructions without treating that discussion as a decision about whom to appoint; if you also want help evaluating agent selection, that is a separate planning conversation.

A financial power of attorney is different again: it serves a financial role, not the health-care role of an advance health care directive. A financial document should not be treated as a substitute for written health-care preferences. Keeping these purposes clear can help you identify what you have already planned and what remains to discuss.

Use existing records to make your preferences concrete

Preparation can begin with information you already have, rather than trying to write a complete document from memory. Gather any current advance health care directive or other health-care planning document, along with notes about preferences you have discussed with family or clinicians. You might also make a list of questions you want to resolve before recording an instruction. These are practical prompts for discussion, not legal requirements.

Review whether an existing document still reflects your wishes. If it does not, note what has changed and what you want to clarify. If you have more than one planning document, bring them together for review so the conversation can account for what each one is intended to do. The goal is to make your choices understandable, not to assume that a record or form answers questions you have not considered.

• Collect existing health-care planning documents and preference notes.
• Mark any wording or decisions you want explained or reconsidered.
• Write down questions for your legal or medical professional.

Plan for access, not just completion

A document can only help the people involved if they can find it when they need it. Decide who should know its location and how relevant people can access the information. The California Courts and California Secretary of State distinguish preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is not the same thing as creating the directive or deciding what it should say.

For Mountain View residents, Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California from its single physical office in Novato. A planning discussion can help you identify the preferences you want documented, the records you already have, and the questions that remain. This is general legal information, not individualized medical advice; discuss treatment decisions with your health-care professional.