Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Norwalk

Start with what you want the document to do

Separate two purposes that can appear together in an advance health care directive: expressing your health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. For this service, the key question is whether your written instructions communicate the preferences you want available when decisions arise. The separate question of whom to select as a decision-maker deserves its own consideration.

Before revising anything, identify what feels incomplete. Is a preference missing or unclear? Are you unsure which document contains the instructions you have in mind? Or are you focused on who would make decisions? Those are different concerns, and naming them helps you compare documents without treating a change to one as a solution to every planning need.

• Write down the treatment preferences you want to communicate, in your own words.
• Note whether your concern is about written instructions, the person who may make decisions, or both.
• Bring existing planning documents so you can identify which document addresses which purpose.

Compare health-care instructions with financial authority

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not health-care instructions. If you are reviewing a set of planning documents, do not assume that a financial power of attorney records your treatment preferences or handles health-care decisions.

A useful comparison is to ask, for each document, what subject it addresses and what gap you are trying to close. If the issue is how your health-care preferences are expressed, focus on the advance health care directive. If the issue is financial decision-making, recognize that this is a separate planning purpose. Keeping the distinction clear can help avoid changing a document that does not address the concern you identified.

• Which document is meant to communicate health-care wishes?
• Are you asking about health-care decisions or financial matters?
• Does the document you are considering changing address the specific concern you have?

Consider access as well as the document itself

Preparing a directive and keeping its information accessible are practical parts of making your wishes available to people who may need them. Registering information about an executed directive is a distinct step from preparing the document and keeping it accessible. Consider whether the people who may need to find your instructions know where the relevant information is kept.

As you review your papers, make a simple inventory of the documents you already have and where you keep them. Identify which one contains your health-care wishes and whether the information would be easy for the relevant people to locate. This is a preparation step, not a substitute for deciding whether the document communicates what you want.

• Gather your existing health-care directive and financial power of attorney, if you have them.
• Record where the documents are kept and which one addresses health-care wishes.
• If considering registration, distinguish that from preparing and keeping the directive accessible.

Choose the next step based on the gap

If the instructions do not express the preferences you want to communicate, the next discussion can focus on the health-care directive. If your uncertainty is about who should make decisions, keep that issue distinct from the wording of treatment preferences. If the concern involves financial authority, a financial power of attorney serves a different purpose and should not be treated as a health-care document.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its Novato office. A practical starting point is to gather the documents you already have and identify the specific question you want answered: what to change, which document addresses it, or how to keep the relevant information accessible.