Reviewing Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Orinda

Decide what you want to review

Start with the reason you are considering a change. You may want to revisit the health-care wishes expressed in writing, understand what a current directive says, or compare it with another document. An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are two functions to keep in view when deciding what questions to raise.

This page focuses on reviewing written health-care preferences and comparing documents. If your concern is specifically who should be identified to make decisions, that is a separate part of the directive to consider. You do not have to treat a question about the wording of your wishes as the same question as a choice about who is identified.

• What written health-care wishes do you want to review?
• Are you considering a change to the directive’s wishes, its decision-making information, or both?
• What question about the document matters most to you right now?

Compare health-care and financial documents by purpose

An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. Comparing the documents by purpose can help you identify which one relates to the question you want to discuss, without assuming that documents serving different roles are interchangeable.

As an optional preparation step, gather the documents you want to compare, if you have them. Make a short list of their names and write down, in your own words, what you understand each one to address. Mark any uncertain language or question rather than guessing at its effect. The list is simply a way to organize a discussion; it is not a legal requirement.

• Which document contains the health-care wishes you want to review?
• Do you also have a financial power of attorney you want to compare?
• What part of either document is unclear to you?

Treat document access and registration as separate questions

Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. When reviewing your plan, consider both the document itself and the practical question of whether it can be found by the people who may need it. Registration information and the directive are not the same thing.

You may wish to note where the relevant documents are kept and who might need to know how to locate them. That is an optional organizational step, not a claim that any particular person must receive a copy or that registration replaces the document. If your question concerns registration, identify it separately from questions about the directive’s wording or the documents you want to keep accessible.

• Which relevant documents do you want to keep accessible?
• Is your concern the directive’s contents, access to documents, or registration information?

Prepare for a focused conversation

Before discussing a possible change, consider bringing the directive and any financial power of attorney you want to compare, if available. Write down what you hope to clarify: the wishes expressed in writing, the directive’s decision-making function, the difference between health-care and financial documents, or access to the documents. This preparation can help keep the discussion centered on your actual concern.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California. Orinda residents can use virtual services to discuss which documents they want to review and what questions they want answered. A useful next step is to identify the document and the specific issue you would like to address.