Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills for Millbrae Residents

Separate treatment instructions from choosing a decision-maker

An advance health care directive can serve two related purposes: expressing your health-care wishes and identifying someone to make health-care decisions. Those are not the same choice. This page focuses on making treatment preferences clear; selecting an appropriate person to act for you is a separate part of planning.

Before preparing instructions, consider what you want to communicate about care and what you would want a decision-maker to understand if a situation is not addressed explicitly. A useful conversation with family can reveal different assumptions about what particular words or preferences mean. Clarifying those assumptions can help make the document more meaningful to the people who may rely on it.

• Which treatment preferences feel important for others to understand?
• Are there circumstances or values you want a decision-maker to consider when interpreting your wishes?
• Who should know where the document is kept?

Check whether the document reflects your present wishes

A directive is useful only to the extent that its instructions communicate what you intend. Review the wording for clarity: would a family member understand the preference without having to guess what you meant? If your wishes depend on a particular circumstance, consider whether that circumstance is described clearly enough to guide a conversation.

You can also discuss your preferences with the people who may be involved in your care. That is a practical preparation step, not a substitute for the written document. The goal is to reduce uncertainty about what you want the document to communicate, rather than relying on a relative to infer your wishes later.

• Identify any wording that could be interpreted in more than one way.
• Consider whether the people likely to need the directive know that it exists and where to look for it.
• Revisit the document when your preferences or circumstances change.

Make the document findable when it matters

Preparing a directive and making information about an executed directive available are distinct steps. The California Courts describe preparing and keeping relevant documents accessible separately from registering information about an executed directive. Registration is therefore not a substitute for considering who needs to know where the document itself can be found.

As a practical organizational step, decide where the document will be stored and tell the relevant people how to locate it. Consider whether someone who may be asked about your wishes could identify the document without having to search through unrelated records. A family’s plan for access should match how its members actually communicate and keep important papers.

Keep health-care instructions distinct from financial authority

A health-care directive and a financial power of attorney address different roles. The directive concerns health-care wishes and health-care decisions; a financial power of attorney serves a financial role. One document should not be treated as a substitute for the other when the question is who may handle financial matters.

When reviewing your planning, ask whether the people involved understand which document addresses which subject. This can help prevent confusion about the scope of a document without assuming that health-care instructions authorize financial decisions. The focus here is on communicating treatment preferences and making the relevant document accessible.

Planning support for Millbrae residents

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, CA 94945, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Millbrae. A planning conversation can help you organize the questions you want your directive to address and consider how the document will be kept accessible to the people who may need it.

Before a conversation, you may find it helpful to note the preferences you want to communicate, any points your family has found unclear, and who should know where the document is stored. These are preparation steps to help focus the discussion; they are not legal requirements.