Advance Health Care Directives in Bermuda Dunes, Riverside County

Compare the documents by the job each one does

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions: written preferences communicate your instructions, while naming an agent identifies a person who may make decisions. Before changing a document, consider which function you are trying to address.

A financial power of attorney has a different role. It concerns financial matters, not health-care instructions. Having one does not, by itself, express your treatment preferences or identify a health-care decision-maker. If your goal is to clarify medical-care wishes, review the health-care directive rather than treating a financial document as a substitute.

The useful question is not simply whether you have a document called a living will. Compare the language in the documents you already have with the decisions you want addressed. If you also want someone to act for you, consider that separately from what you want your written instructions to say.

Decide what you want your instructions to communicate

Before revising health-care instructions, identify the situations or choices you want the document to address. Consider whether your current wording still reflects your preferences and whether it communicates them clearly enough for another person to understand. The purpose of this review is to express your wishes, not to predict a particular medical outcome.

Keep the agent question separate. Ask yourself whether the person named in an existing directive is still the person you want making health-care decisions, if that role becomes relevant. If your concern is only the written preferences, focus the review there. If you are unsure about both, make a list of questions for each issue rather than assuming one change resolves the other.

These are planning questions, not medical recommendations. Your preferences and circumstances are personal; general information cannot determine which treatment choices are right for you.

Gather documents and make them accessible

For a focused review, collect any advance health care directive or living-will document you already have, along with any financial power of attorney you want to compare. Note which document contains health-care instructions, which identifies a health-care decision-maker, and which concerns financial matters. Mark unclear or outdated passages and write down the changes you are considering.

Think about access as well as content. Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible to the people who may need them is a separate task from registering information about an executed directive. The California Secretary of State maintains an advance health care directive registry, but registry information and the directive itself are not the same thing. Consider how the people involved in your care would know where to find your instructions.

Do not assume that registering information makes your written preferences available in every circumstance. Check what information the registry process concerns and separately plan how relevant people can access the document.

Get help reviewing a change

A practical next step is to bring the documents you have and a short list of questions: Do the written instructions still reflect my preferences? Is the health-care decision-maker identified in the directive still the person I intend? Are my financial documents being confused with my health-care planning? How will the people who may need these documents find them?

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office at 802 Grant Ave in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including Bermuda Dunes. A discussion can focus on the documents and choices you want to review; it is not a substitute for medical guidance about treatment. You can seek legal information about how the documents differ and what changes to consider, while making health-care decisions with appropriate medical input.