Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Stockton

Start with the decision you want the document to support

Before focusing on forms or terminology, ask what you want a written directive to accomplish. An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes, identify someone to make health-care decisions, or address both. Written instructions and choosing a decision-maker are related, but they are not the same task.

If your main concern is recording treatment preferences, consider what you want the document to communicate and whether someone close to you can locate and understand it. If your main concern is who should speak for you, give that choice separate attention. A document that records preferences does not, by itself, answer every question about who will make a decision; likewise, naming a decision-maker is not a substitute for setting out wishes you want recorded.

• What preferences do you want recorded in writing?
• Do you also want to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Who should know where the document is kept?

Keep health-care instructions distinct from financial authority

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different role: financial matters. Do not assume that a person named in one document automatically has authority under the other, or that a financial document communicates your treatment preferences.

When reviewing existing paperwork, identify the purpose of each document and the person, if any, it names. If your planning needs include both health-care and financial decisions, treat those as separate questions to clarify rather than relying on one document to do both jobs.

Make the document useful by making it findable

A written directive can only inform the people involved if they can find or access it when it matters. Decide where the relevant document will be kept and let the appropriate people know how to locate it. A practical preparation step is to make a simple record of the document’s location and the people who should know about it.

Preparing and keeping the document accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is not a substitute for making the document itself available to the people who may need to consult it. Consider how family members or other relevant people would find the document, and whether your plan for access is clear.

Clarify the plan before relying on it

A focused review can begin with three questions: What wishes do you want written down? Do you want to identify someone to make health-care decisions as well? Where will the document be kept, and who will know how to find it? These questions help distinguish the content of the directive from the separate practical issue of access.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. is based at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Stockton. If you are considering an advance health care directive or reviewing how your existing planning documents fit together, contact the firm to discuss what you want the document to communicate and how the people who may need it will locate it.