Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Laguna Woods

Separate what you want communicated from who may decide

When planning a directive, consider two questions separately: What health-care wishes do you want the document to express, and whom do you want it to identify for health-care decisions? An advance health care directive can address both. Thinking about each purpose in turn can help you explain what you want recorded without treating the named person as a substitute for your written preferences.

A practical starting point is to make a private list of the wishes and concerns you want the document to communicate. You can also note questions about how those preferences should be described. These are preparation notes, not a requirement to create medical instructions on your own.

• List the preferences you want the document to express.
• Separately note questions about identifying a health-care decision-maker.
• Keep the wording of your wishes distinct from the choice of person.

Understand the named person's role

The person identified in an advance health care directive has a health-care decision-making role. The directive can also express your health-care wishes, but naming someone and recording preferences are not the same task. Consider what you want the person to understand about your wishes, and what you want the document itself to communicate.

A useful preparation step is to write down questions about the relationship between the preferences in the document and the person identified for decisions. You may also choose to tell that person where the relevant document is kept. These steps help you focus on communicating your intentions; they do not expand the person's role into other kinds of authority.

• Consider what you want the person to know about your stated preferences.
• Make a separate list of questions about the person's health-care role.
• Note who should know how to locate the document.

Do not treat health-care authority as financial authority

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and can identify someone to make health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. Naming someone for health-care decisions does not, by itself, address the separate financial role described by a financial power of attorney.

If you are thinking about both health-care and financial matters, frame them as separate planning questions. Ask what you want someone to be able to address, and whether that is a health-care matter or a financial one. Keeping the purposes distinct helps avoid relying on a health-care document to address a financial role.

• Identify whether each question concerns health care or finances.
• Do not assume a health-care decision-making role also covers financial matters.

Plan how the document can be found

Preparing the relevant document and keeping it accessible to people who may need it are separate practical concerns from registering information about an executed directive. Think about where you will keep the document and who should know how to locate it. A simple inventory of document locations and the people who know those locations can help you organize this information.

Registration is not a substitute for preparing the directive or making the document accessible. If you are considering registration, keep that question distinct from the work of expressing your wishes and identifying a health-care decision-maker. A next step is to gather your preferences, questions about the named person's role, and a plan for where the document will be kept for a discussion about your planning needs.