Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Palos Verdes Estates

Start with what has changed

A change in your circumstances can prompt a fresh look at your advance health care directive. Begin by identifying what is different and what you want your current plan to communicate. The document can express your health-care wishes, so the central question is whether its written instructions still match those wishes.

A useful review is not simply a check that a document exists. Read it with your present preferences in mind. Notice any language that feels incomplete, unclear to you, or inconsistent with what you would now want conveyed. These are practical questions for organizing a review, not medical recommendations about which treatment to choose.

• What circumstances have changed since you prepared the plan?
• Do the written preferences still reflect what you want communicated about your health care?
• What parts would you like to clarify or reconsider?

Separate written wishes from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can do two different things: express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those functions are related, but they are not identical. This page focuses on reviewing written instructions and making them available to people who may need them.

If your main concern is who should make decisions, treat that as a separate question from what preferences you want recorded. You can consider both when reviewing your plan, while keeping the two choices clear: the written instructions describe your wishes; naming someone addresses who may make health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney has a different role involving financial decisions.

• Review the written preferences for accuracy and clarity.
• Separately consider whether the person identified to make health-care decisions remains the person you want in that role.
• Do not treat a financial power of attorney as a substitute for health-care instructions.

Prepare for a focused review

Before discussing a change, gather the directive you currently rely on and note the circumstances that led you to revisit it. Mark the passages you want to discuss, and write down questions about what the document says or what you want it to communicate. This preparation can help keep the conversation centered on your current preferences.

If you have information about an executed directive in a registry, keep that separate from the directive itself. Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration should not be confused with reviewing whether your written wishes remain current.

• Bring or have available the directive you want to review.
• Make a short list of changes in circumstances and questions about the written preferences.
• Keep the document accessible to the people who may need it.

Keep the plan available and know its limits

A directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions, but it is not the same as a financial power of attorney. Keeping the relevant document accessible is a practical part of making your plan available; registering information about an executed directive is a distinct matter.

For clients in Palos Verdes Estates, Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California. A useful next step is to gather your existing directive and the questions raised by your changed circumstances, then arrange a discussion focused on whether its written preferences still reflect your wishes.