Advance Health Care Directives in Spring Valley, San Diego County

Start with the decisions you want to communicate

Before a consultation, consider what you want your written instructions to convey about health care. You do not need to arrive with polished legal language. A useful starting point is to describe the kinds of situations or choices you want to discuss and what matters most to you when considering care. The purpose of an advance health care directive can include expressing health care wishes; the document may also identify someone to make health care decisions.

Keep preferences separate from assumptions about what a particular medical situation will involve. A lawyer can help you discuss how to express your wishes in a document, but this page does not advise you what medical choices to make. If you have questions about treatment options, direct those to an appropriate health care professional.

• Write down the preferences you want to discuss, using your own words.
• Note any questions about how a preference could be expressed in written instructions.
• Identify topics where you need more information from a health care professional before deciding what you want to communicate.

Keep written instructions distinct from agent selection

A directive can serve two related but different purposes: state health care wishes and identify a person to make health care decisions. This page focuses on the first purpose. If you also want to choose or evaluate a health care agent, treat that as a separate discussion rather than assuming that written treatment preferences answer the agent-selection question.

A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, not the health care role described here. If you already have financial-planning documents, make a note of their names so you can distinguish them during the consultation. Their existence does not, by itself, tell you what your health care instructions say.

• List whether your main goal is to record treatment preferences, discuss naming a health care decision-maker, or address both.
• If you have a financial power of attorney, identify it as a separate financial document.

Prepare records and questions for a remote consultation

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, and provides virtual services throughout California. Spring Valley is within that service coverage; it is not a claim that the firm has a Spring Valley office. Before meeting remotely, collect the information that will help explain your current planning and the questions you want answered.

If you have an existing advance health care directive, locate the document and note where a copy can be found. Preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. If you have not prepared one, you can still bring a written outline of your preferences and questions; that outline is preparation for the discussion, not a substitute for legal advice or a completed directive.

• Gather any existing directive and note where you keep copies or who can access them.
• Make a short list of preferences, uncertainties, and changes you want to discuss.
• Bring the names or descriptions of other planning documents you want to distinguish from health care instructions.
• Ask how to keep the relevant documents accessible and whether registration information is a separate consideration.

Use the consultation to clarify the document’s role

A focused discussion can help separate the content of your health care instructions from questions about locating or registering information about an executed directive. These are different tasks: preparing and keeping the document accessible is not the same as registering information about it. Ask which task you are addressing and what information you need to consider for that task.

For a remote consultation, contact Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. at 844-492-4600 and explain that you are in Spring Valley and want to discuss treatment preferences in an advance health care directive or living will. You may also ask whether a separate conversation about selecting a health care agent is appropriate for your needs.