Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in San Clemente

Start with the document’s purpose

An advance health care directive can do two related but distinct things: express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. If you are comparing documents because you want your treatment preferences recorded, focus first on the written-instructions function. Selecting an agent is a separate decision, even though both may appear in the same directive.

The word “living will” is often used when discussing written instructions about care. When reviewing a document, look at what it is meant to do rather than relying on its label: an advance health care directive can express health-care wishes. This distinction can help you decide whether the question is how to communicate preferences, whom to identify as a decision-maker, or both.

Compare health-care instructions with financial authority

A financial power of attorney has a different role from an advance health care directive. The directive concerns health-care wishes and decisions; the financial power of attorney serves a financial role. They are not interchangeable simply because both documents may name another person.

Before deciding what to change, compare your current documents by purpose. Ask whether the document addresses health-care preferences, identifies someone to make health-care decisions, or gives financial authority. If your concern is about the instructions you want followed for health care, a financial power of attorney does not serve that same purpose. If you are concerned about financial decisions, the directive is not a substitute for a financial power of attorney.

• Write down the purpose you want each document to serve.
• Note whether your priority is recording preferences, identifying a health-care decision-maker, addressing finances, or reviewing more than one of these issues.

Make the instructions usable by the people who may need them

Preparing the relevant document and keeping it accessible are practical steps separate from registering information about an executed directive. A document’s usefulness depends in part on whether the people who may need it can find and consult it. Consider where you keep relevant documents and how the people involved would know where to look.

As preparation, bring or organize any existing advance health care directive and financial power of attorney, along with notes about what you want to clarify or change. You can also make a short list of the people who may need to locate the documents. These are organizational suggestions, not additional legal requirements.

Treat registry information as a separate question

Registering information about an executed advance health care directive is distinct from preparing the directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible. Consider these as separate tasks: deciding what your directive should communicate, making the document available to the people who may need it, and deciding whether to register information about an executed directive.

A registry entry and the directive itself are not the same planning step. When reviewing what to change, identify whether your immediate need concerns the document’s health-care instructions, access to the document, or information about an executed directive. Keeping those questions distinct makes it easier to focus on the issue you are trying to address.

Choose the next step by the question you need answered

If you already have documents, begin by comparing their purposes and noting any uncertainty about the health-care preferences you want recorded. If you do not have a directive, consider first what you want its written-instructions function to address, separately from whether you also want to identify someone to make health-care decisions. For help assessing which documents to review or change, contact Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C.