Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for San Luis Obispo Residents

Separate treatment preferences from choosing a decision-maker

A directive can address two different planning concerns: recording your health-care wishes and naming someone to make health-care decisions. These functions can appear in the same document, but they are not the same choice. Written preferences communicate what matters to you; selecting an agent addresses who may make decisions for you.

This page focuses on the written-instructions side of that planning. Consider what you want the document to communicate about your care and whether the person you identify as an agent understands your preferences. The agent-selection question deserves separate consideration: a person may be willing to serve, but you should still consider whether that person is the right one to communicate your wishes.

• What preferences do you want recorded for others to consult?
• Who should be able to make health-care decisions if you cannot make them yourself?
• What would help that person understand the preferences you have written down?

Ask who needs to be able to find the document

A useful practical question is not only who has authority, but whether the relevant people can locate the information. Preparing the directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. Registration information and the directive itself are not interchangeable: people who need to understand your wishes may need access to the document, not only information that a directive exists.

As a preparation step, consider who should know where you keep your planning documents and how the person you name could find them. You can also consider whether registering information about an executed directive is appropriate for your circumstances. These are different ways of addressing access; neither changes the distinction between recording wishes and choosing an agent.

• Identify the people who may need to locate or consult the directive.
• Consider how you will keep the document accessible to those people.
• Treat registration information as a separate access consideration, not as a substitute for the document.

Keep health-care authority separate from financial authority

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. One document should not be assumed to answer the other question: a person identified to make health-care decisions is not, on that basis alone, identified to manage financial matters.

When reviewing your planning, ask whether you are addressing a health-care decision, a financial matter, or both. If both kinds of authority matter to your planning, keep the questions distinct and make sure you understand which document addresses each one. This distinction can prevent a family member from relying on a health-care document for a financial purpose it does not serve.

Prepare for a focused planning conversation

Before discussing a directive, write down the preferences you want it to communicate, the people who may need to find it, and any uncertainty about who should make health-care decisions. Those notes can help keep the conversation centered on your wishes and on practical access, rather than treating the document as a form to complete without considering how it will be used.

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services statewide, including for people in San Luis Obispo. A next step is to discuss what you want recorded, who should be able to consult it, and whether your planning also raises a separate financial-authority question.