Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Poway Residents

Start with the decision your instructions should communicate

Before focusing on document wording, consider what you want others to understand about your health-care preferences. The central question is what wishes you want recorded so they can inform health-care decisions if you are unable to communicate them yourself. An advance health care directive can express those wishes; it can also identify someone to make health-care decisions, but selecting that person is a separate choice from describing your preferences.

Keep this page’s focus on the instructions themselves. If you are also deciding who should speak for you, consider that as its own planning question rather than treating the written preferences as a substitute for choosing an agent. A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care instructions.

• What health-care preferences do you want written down?
• What would you want the person involved in your care to understand about those preferences?
• Are you deciding about written instructions, choosing a health-care decision-maker, or considering both separately?

Make your preferences concrete before discussing wording

A useful preparation step is to write a private, plain-language note about the preferences you want the directive to convey. You might organize the note around the decisions or circumstances you want to discuss, and mark any points you are unsure about. This is a way to clarify your priorities before planning; it is not a legal checklist or medical recommendation.

If you have questions about what a treatment or care option involves, raise them with an appropriate health-care professional. The purpose of preparing your note is to make your own preferences clearer, not to determine which medical choice is right for you. Bringing the note to a planning discussion can help keep the conversation focused on what you want the written instructions to say.

Keep written instructions distinct from agent selection

An advance health care directive can combine two functions: it can express health-care wishes and identify a person to make health-care decisions. Those functions are related, but one does not answer every question raised by the other. Written preferences communicate what matters to you; selecting an agent addresses who may make health-care decisions.

If you already have a person in mind, you can still consider what written guidance would help that person understand your wishes. If you are not ready to choose an agent, you can focus first on clarifying the preferences you want documented. A financial power of attorney should not be confused with either health-care function because it serves a financial role.

Plan for access to the document and related information

Creating and keeping relevant documents accessible are separate from registering information about an executed advance health care directive. Think practically about who may need to find the directive and how you will make its location known. A document that cannot readily be located may be less useful to the people trying to understand your preferences.

The California Secretary of State maintains an advance health care directive registry, but registry information is not the same thing as preparing the directive or keeping the document accessible. Consider where the document will be kept and what information about it should be available to the people who may need it. Questions about registration can be handled separately from the work of deciding what your written instructions should communicate.

Planning support for Poway residents

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 Poway. A planning conversation can focus on the preferences you want to express, how written instructions differ from selecting a health-care decision-maker, and practical access to the document.

For a useful first step, bring your private note of preferences and questions about how to communicate them. You do not need to resolve every planning question before starting a discussion; separating the decision about written instructions from the decision about an agent can make each easier to consider.