Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Villa Park

Separate your instructions from the decision-maker’s role

When planning a directive, consider two questions: What health-care preferences do you want recorded, and whom do you want identified to make health-care decisions? An advance health care directive can address both. Written wishes communicate your preferences; naming someone addresses who may make decisions. The person named should not be confused with the written instructions themselves.

A useful discussion begins with the distinction between expressing a preference and making a decision. Consider what you want the document to communicate and what you expect the named person’s role to be. If your main goal is choosing an appropriate person, that is a separate planning question from describing treatment preferences.

• Written instructions: the preferences you want documented.
• Named person: someone identified to make health-care decisions.
• Financial authority: a separate role addressed by a financial power of attorney.

Make your preferences understandable and accessible

A written preference is more useful when the people who may need to refer to it can locate and understand it. Before preparing or updating a directive, think through what you want it to say and how you will keep the relevant documents accessible. You can also consider who should know where the documents are kept.

As a practical preparation step, make a list of the preferences you want to discuss and the questions you would like answered. For example, you might want to describe a treatment preference in plain language and ask how that preference can be clearly recorded. This is a prompt for discussion, not a medical recommendation about what treatment to choose.

Preparing and keeping documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is not a substitute for making the relevant document available to the people who may need it.

Know what the directive does not address

A health-care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decision-making. It does not serve the same financial role as a financial power of attorney. If you are also considering who should handle financial matters, treat that as a separate planning topic rather than assuming the person named in a health-care directive has financial authority.

A useful way to check your plan is to ask which responsibility each document addresses. If a question concerns treatment preferences or health-care decisions, focus on the directive. If it concerns financial decisions, ask about the separate financial-planning document. This distinction can help you identify gaps to discuss without assuming that one document covers every kind of authority.

Discuss your plan with Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Villa Park. To start a planning discussion, gather any existing directive or related planning documents you want to discuss, along with your questions about treatment preferences, the person you may identify, and where relevant documents will be kept.

A focused next step is to identify which of those issues is most important to resolve first. You can then discuss how your written preferences and the decision-making role fit together, and whether a separate financial-planning question also needs attention.