Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Fullerton
A written statement of treatment preferences and the choice of a person to make health-care decisions address related but distinct concerns. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office in Novato and provides virtual services statewide, including for people in Fullerton.
Start by separating wishes from decision-making authority
An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are two functions within one document, but they answer different questions: what preferences should be communicated, and who may be asked to decide.
If your immediate concern is documenting treatment preferences, focus first on whether the instructions say what you want others to understand. If your concern is who would speak for you, consider the separate agent-selection question as well. Naming a person does not, by itself, explain your preferences; written preferences do not, by themselves, tell you whether the person you have in mind is the right choice.
- What health-care preferences do you want to communicate?
- Who do you want identified to make health-care decisions?
- Would the people involved be able to find and understand the document when needed?
Check which kind of authority your question concerns
The next step depends on whether the issue is health care or finances. An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decision-making. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role; it is not a substitute for communicating health-care preferences.
For example, if your concern is who can address bills or other financial matters, that points to a financial-authority question rather than a treatment-preference question. If your concern is what you want communicated about health care, an advance health care directive is the relevant document to consider. These documents address different purposes, so do not assume one settles the other.
- Identify whether the decision you are planning for is about health care or finances.
- Keep the discussion of treatment preferences separate from questions about financial authority.
Make the instructions useful to the people who may need them
Preparing a document is only part of the practical task: the relevant information also needs to be accessible. Consider which people may need to know that your directive exists and where they can find it. A preparation step is to make a private list of the people you expect may need to locate or refer to it, then consider how to share the necessary information with them.
Keeping accessible copies or information is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is a separate step; it does not replace thinking through how the people involved will learn that a document exists or access it.
- Consider who should know where the directive is kept.
- Ask how the people involved would locate the information if circumstances change.
- Treat document access and registry information as separate planning questions.
Use a focused review conversation
Before a planning conversation, write down the preferences you want to communicate and the questions you have about who should make health-care decisions. Separately note any concerns about financial authority so that the discussion does not blur the purpose of different documents.
A useful next step is to review whether your document communicates your preferences and whether the people you have identified can be informed about its location. If your main concern is selecting a health-care decision-maker, make that the focus of the discussion rather than treating it as the same question as what treatment preferences to record.
- Bring your questions about preferences, decision-making authority, and access to the document.
- Identify whether your concern is health-care decision-making or a separate financial matter.
Questions to discuss
Does an advance health care directive only record treatment preferences?
It can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. These functions are related but distinct: preferences communicate what you want understood, while identifying a person addresses who may make decisions.
Is a financial power of attorney the same as an advance health care directive?
No. An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decision-making. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role, so a question about financial authority should not be treated as a question about treatment preferences.
Official resources
General information, not an assessment of your documents or circumstances. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and offers virtual services across California. A remote consultation does not itself authorize remote signing or a remote court appearance.
