Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills in Woodside

Compare the roles before changing a document

An advance health care directive can express your health-care wishes and identify someone to make health-care decisions. That means reviewing an existing directive may involve two separate tasks: considering whether its written instructions still express your preferences, and considering whether the person named to decide still reflects your choice.

A financial power of attorney has a different role: it concerns financial decisions, rather than health-care decisions. Comparing the documents can help you avoid treating a financial planning document as a substitute for health-care instructions or a health-care decision-maker.

For example, someone might still want the same person to make health-care decisions but wish to revisit the written preferences in the directive. Another person might be satisfied with the instructions but want to reconsider whom the directive identifies. These are examples of different review questions, not recommendations about what choice is right for you.

• Written preferences: Do the instructions in your directive still express what you want communicated about your care?
• Decision-maker: Do you still want the person identified in the directive to make health-care decisions?
• Financial role: Are you reviewing a financial power of attorney for its separate financial purpose?

Decide what you want to change

Before deciding whether to revise a document, identify which question is prompting your review. If your concern is about what you want written down, focus first on the directive's instructions. If your concern is who would speak for you, focus on the directive's decision-maker provision. If the concern is about finances, review the financial power of attorney for that distinct role.

A practical way to prepare is to gather the documents you currently have and make a short list of what you want each one to accomplish. You might note questions such as, “Do these instructions still reflect my preferences?” or “Is this still the person I want making health-care decisions?” This is a discussion aid, not a legal requirement or a substitute for deciding what you want.

Keeping these questions separate can make a proposed change clearer: it may concern instructions, the named decision-maker, or a financial document with a different purpose. A change in one area does not by itself answer what you want in the others.

Make the directive findable

Preparing a directive and keeping the relevant documents accessible to people who may need them are practical parts of planning. Consider who should know where your directive is kept and how they could locate it when needed. The aim is to make your written instructions available, not merely to have a document that is difficult for others to find.

Registering information about an executed advance health care directive is a separate step from preparing the directive and keeping documents accessible. Registration should not be confused with writing or changing your treatment preferences, and it does not replace considering how relevant people can find the document.

Planning support for Woodside residents

Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one in-person office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California, including Woodside. You can use a planning conversation to identify whether your questions concern written health-care instructions, the person named to make health-care decisions, or a separate financial document.