Advance Health Care Directives in San Diego Country Estates, San Diego County

Begin with the preferences you want to communicate

Before focusing on wording, identify what you want others to understand about your health-care preferences. You might note the questions you want addressed, concerns you want recorded, or values you want reflected in a planning conversation. Those notes can help turn a broad intention into a more focused discussion without requiring you to draft technical medical instructions.

An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes. The decision about what to communicate is separate from the decision about whom to identify to make health-care decisions. A directive can address both, but this page concentrates on the written preferences. It does not provide medical advice.

• Write down the preferences, concerns, and questions you want to discuss.
• Separate health-care wishes from financial decisions and authority over property.

Keep written instructions distinct from agent selection

It can help to consider two questions separately: What health-care wishes do you want to express? And whom, if anyone, do you want to identify to make health-care decisions? The first is about the preferences communicated in the directive; the second is about the person named to make decisions. This page addresses the first question and does not recommend whom you should choose.

A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, rather than health-care decisions. If you are organizing more than one planning document, keep the purpose of each clear. A financial decision about property does not answer what you want a health-care directive to communicate.

Prepare records so the document can be found

Gather any existing advance health care directive and the notes or questions that will help you explain what you want it to say. If you already have a document, locate the copy you regard as current and consider who may need to find it. These are practical preparation steps, not legal requirements.

Think through where you will keep the document and how relevant people will learn where it is. Preparing a directive, keeping it accessible, and registering information about an executed directive are different tasks. California has an Advance Health Care Directive Registry; registering information does not replace preparing the document or making sure the people who may need it can access it.

For a planning discussion, you can bring your existing directive, if any, your written questions, and a note of who should know how to locate it. This helps keep the conversation focused on the preferences you want communicated and the practical question of how the document will be available.

• Decide who should know where the directive is kept and how to obtain it.
• If considering the state registry, distinguish registration of information about an executed directive from keeping the document accessible.

Virtual planning for San Diego Country Estates

San Diego Country Estates is an unincorporated community in San Diego County, not a separate firm office. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office at 802 Grant Ave in Novato and provides virtual services throughout California. San Diego Country Estates residents can discuss advance health care directive planning virtually; service in the community does not mean the firm has a local branch.

A useful next step is to gather any existing directive and make a short list of the preferences and questions you want to address. You can then discuss how to express those preferences and keep the document accessible. This general information is not a substitute for advice about your individual circumstances.