Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Santee

Start by comparing the documents’ purposes

An advance health care directive can record your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Those are related but distinct functions: written instructions describe preferences, while naming a person addresses who may decide. When reviewing an existing document, consider each function separately rather than assuming that a change to one answers the other.

A financial power of attorney serves a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not health-care decisions. If you are reviewing several planning documents together, keep that distinction clear. A financial document should not be treated as a substitute for written health-care preferences or for identifying a health-care decision-maker.

• Written health-care wishes: What preferences do you want recorded?
• Health-care decision-maker: Does your current directive identify the person you want to decide?
• Financial authority: Are you also reviewing a separate document for financial decisions?

Decide what needs attention before making changes

Gather the health-care documents you already have, along with any notes that reflect preferences you want to discuss. Compare the written instructions with your current wishes, then separately check whether the person identified to make decisions is still the person you intend. This is a practical review, not a medical recommendation about which treatments to choose.

You may find that only one part needs reconsideration. For example, your preferences might have changed while your choice of decision-maker has not, or you may want to review the named person without changing your instructions. Treat those as separate questions so a proposed revision stays focused.

Before deciding what to change, you can write down questions about how to describe your preferences and how the directive’s two functions fit your plans. If a question concerns a particular treatment or your health, discuss that with an appropriate health-care professional; the document review does not determine what care is medically appropriate.

Keep access and registration questions separate

Preparing a directive and keeping relevant documents accessible are different tasks from registering information about an executed directive. Registration concerns information about a directive; it does not replace the document itself or the separate task of making relevant documents available to people who may need them.

As a preparation step, make a list of where your current documents are kept and who should know how to locate them. Then consider whether you have an access plan that matches your wishes. This is a practical organization step, not a claim that registration is required or that registering information makes a document available in every situation.

Plan a focused review

Bring the documents you want compared and identify the specific question you want answered: whether to revise written health-care preferences, whether to reconsider the person named to make decisions, or whether you are mistakenly relying on a financial power of attorney for a health-care purpose. Keeping the questions distinct makes it easier to identify what you want your documents to do.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California from its in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato. A focused discussion can begin with your existing documents and the changes you are considering, without assuming that every document needs revision.