Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Alturas

Decide what you want the directive to do

Before relying on a directive, clarify which of its functions matter to you. Do you want it to express health-care wishes, identify someone to make health-care decisions, or address both? A document’s general label, including “living will,” does not answer those personal planning questions for you.

Keep the two questions separate as you consider your choices. Written wishes do not, by themselves, answer whom you want to make decisions. Naming someone does not, by itself, explain which wishes you want communicated. Thinking about both can help you identify what you want the document to say and what you want a decision-maker to understand.

• Write down the wishes you want communicated.
• Separately consider whether you want to identify someone to make health-care decisions.
• Note anything you are unsure the document would communicate, rather than assuming that its title resolves the question.

Prepare for a clear discussion of your wishes

A practical starting point is to make a short, private list of the wishes you want the document to express and the questions you have about putting them into words. This is an optional preparation step, not a required formality. It can help you distinguish what you want recorded from questions about who should make decisions.

Consider whether the wording you are discussing would be understandable to the people you expect may need to consult the document. If you have several wishes or questions, group them by topic so you can review them one at a time. The goal of this preparation is to clarify what you want to communicate—not to treat a general phrase or document label as a complete statement of your intentions.

• List the wishes you want expressed and the questions you want to resolve.
• Mark separately any question about identifying a decision-maker.
• Bring an existing directive if you want to discuss what it communicates.

Plan how people can find the document

Preparing and keeping the relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration information and the document itself are not the same thing; consider separately how the people who may need the directive will know where it is kept.

As an optional practical step, think about who may need to know that a directive exists and where you keep it. If you identify someone to make health-care decisions, you may also want to consider what you want that person to know about the document’s location. These are questions for planning access, not a statement that a particular way of storing or sharing a document is required.

• Consider who may need to locate the directive.
• Decide what, if anything, you want those people to know about where it is kept.
• Keep the question of document access separate from whether you register information about an executed directive.

Keep financial authority separate

An advance health care directive and a financial power of attorney have different roles. A directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions; a financial power of attorney serves a financial role. If you are considering both types of document, clarify which questions each is intended to address instead of assuming one covers the other’s purpose.

This distinction can make a review more focused: ask what you want communicated about health care, who you want to make health-care decisions, and whether you have separate financial questions. The documents address different matters, so one should not be treated as a substitute for the other’s role.

Discuss your planning questions with the firm

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California. For someone in Alturas, a useful next step is to gather any existing directive you want to discuss, your written wishes or questions, and your thoughts about whether to identify a decision-maker. That preparation can make it easier to focus a discussion on what you want the document to communicate and how people who may need it can find it.