Advance Health Care Directives in La Honda, San Mateo County

Start with the wishes you want understood

Consider what you want a written directive to communicate about health care. Which preferences matter most to you? Are there concerns or values you want the person making decisions to understand? These are preparation questions, not a substitute for medical advice. The purpose is to make your wishes clearer to the people who may need to refer to them.

An advance health care directive can express health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. Treat these as separate parts of your planning: the written instructions describe your preferences, and the named person may be called on to make decisions. Discussing both can help you explain what you want the document to accomplish without assuming that one part replaces the other.

• Write down the preferences you want to discuss and the questions you have about expressing them.
• Think about what you would want the named person to understand about your wishes.

Keep the decision-maker’s role distinct

The person identified in an advance health care directive is designated to make health-care decisions. The directive’s written preferences communicate your wishes; they do not turn the person’s role into authority over every issue that might arise. A useful conversation can clarify what your preferences mean to you and what you hope the person will keep in mind when making health-care decisions.

Financial matters are a separate category. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role; naming someone for health-care decisions does not, on that basis alone, give that person financial authority. If you want someone to address financial matters as well, consider that as a separate planning question rather than assuming the health-care document covers it.

Plan how people can find the document

A practical preparation step is to decide who should know where your directive is kept and how the person named in it could locate it if needed. You can also consider whether other people who may help coordinate care should know where to look. These are accessibility considerations, not legal execution instructions.

Keeping relevant documents accessible is different from registering information about an executed directive. California’s Advance Health Care Directive Registry is a resource to consider separately from preparing the document and making sure the people who may need it can find it. Registration does not replace those practical conversations.

• Make a short list of people who should know where the directive is kept.
• Consider whether you want to use the state registry resource, separately from deciding how the document will be accessible.

Decide what you want help clarifying

Before a planning conversation, identify whether your main concern is putting health-care preferences into writing, clarifying the role of a health-care decision-maker, or addressing financial authority separately. You might bring the questions you have written down and explain who should be able to locate the document. This helps keep the discussion focused on the purpose of the directive and the responsibilities you are considering.

La Honda is an unincorporated community in San Mateo County. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. serves clients virtually throughout California; its physical office is in Novato, not La Honda. If you want to discuss how health-care instructions and separate financial planning fit your circumstances, contact the firm about a planning discussion. This general information is not individualized legal or medical advice.