Advance Health Care Directives in Alta, Placer County

Separate treatment instructions from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can serve two related purposes: express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are different questions. Written preferences describe what you want communicated; choosing a person addresses who may make decisions. A document may address both, but naming someone does not by itself explain your treatment preferences.

For this page, the focus is the written-preferences side. If you are still deciding whom to identify as a health-care decision-maker, consider that as a separate part of planning rather than treating a list of preferences as a substitute for choosing someone. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial matters, not health-care decisions.

• What health-care wishes do you want the document to communicate?
• Would a person reading it understand the preferences you intend to express?
• Who needs to know where the document is kept?

Clarify what the document is meant to do

Before relying on a directive, identify its purpose in your planning. Are you recording health-care wishes, identifying a person to make health-care decisions, or addressing both? Being clear about that distinction can help prevent confusion between the document’s health-care function and a financial power of attorney’s separate financial function.

Discuss the meaning of your preferences with the people who may need to refer to the document. This is a practical communication step, not a substitute for the document itself or a medical recommendation. If your preferences change, consider whether the document still communicates what you intend and ask a lawyer about your planning questions.

• List the preferences you want to communicate, in terms that make sense to you.
• Identify who should be able to locate the document if it is needed.
• Note questions about the document’s meaning or scope for a legal-planning discussion.

Make the document accessible to the people who may need it

Preparing a directive and keeping it accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. California’s Secretary of State maintains an Advance Health Care Directive Registry, but registration information is not the directive itself. Consider both the document and how the people who may need it will know where to find it.

As a practical preparation step, tell the relevant people where the document is kept and check that they can locate the information when needed. You can also ask whether registry information would help in your circumstances. These are planning questions, not a claim that registration is required or that it replaces keeping the document available.

• Decide where the directive will be stored.
• Tell the people who may need it how to locate it.
• Ask whether registry information is useful for your situation.

Get help with planning from Alta

Alta is in Placer County. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its single physical office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945; it does not have a separate Alta office. A planning conversation can help you organize questions about what your directive should communicate, how it relates to the person you identify, and how the document will be kept accessible.

Bring your current directive, if you have one, and a short list of preferences or questions you want to clarify. General information here is not individualized legal or medical advice. Discuss your circumstances with a qualified professional before relying on a document or making a health-care decision.