Advance Health Care Directives in Cherry Valley, Riverside County

Compare the purpose of each document

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Written treatment preferences and choosing a decision-maker are related, but they are not the same choice. You may want to review each part separately so that the document reflects both your instructions and your plan for decisions that are not covered by those instructions.

A financial power of attorney serves a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care decisions. If you are looking at several planning documents together, do not assume that naming someone in a financial document gives that person authority over your health care.

• What preferences do you want written down?
• Does your current directive identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Are you reviewing a health-care document, a financial power of attorney, or both?

Decide what, if anything, needs clarification

Before changing a document, compare what it says with what you want people to understand. Consider whether the written preferences still reflect your views, whether the document also addresses who may make decisions, and whether someone trying to help you could locate the relevant paperwork. These are review questions, not a medical recommendation about which treatment to choose.

For example, someone might find that a directive clearly identifies a decision-maker but does not communicate the treatment preferences they now want recorded. That person could use the comparison to identify what to discuss with a lawyer or health-care professional, rather than treating a general example as advice about their own care.

• Identify the document you currently rely on and the part you want to reconsider.
• Write down questions about the meaning or scope of its language.
• Separate legal-document questions from questions about medical care.

Make the information findable

Preparing the relevant documents and keeping them accessible is different from registering information about an executed directive. The California Courts and Secretary of State resources describe both document preparation and the separate registry function. Registry information is not a substitute for considering what the directive says or how the people who may need it can locate it.

As a practical preparation step, make a list of where your current health-care documents are kept and who you expect may need to find them. If you are comparing an existing directive with a possible revision, bring the existing document and your questions to the discussion. This helps focus the review on the words and arrangements you actually have.

Get help from Cherry Valley

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California, including Cherry Valley. Cherry Valley is an unincorporated community; service to the area does not mean the firm has a local branch.

For a focused discussion, identify whether you need to clarify treatment preferences, review the decision-maker portion of a directive, or distinguish a health-care document from a financial power of attorney. You can then ask how the documents relate and what questions remain before deciding whether to change them. Routine health-care planning is distinct from probate administration; Riverside County Superior Court’s probate resource is general court information, not a source of instructions for preparing a health-care directive or proof of venue in a particular matter.