Advance Health Care Directives in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara County

Clarify what you want the written instructions to say

Before relying on a directive, consider whether its written instructions reflect the preferences you want others to understand. Ask yourself which health-care wishes feel important to communicate, and whether your wording would make sense to someone who has not heard you explain it. These are useful preparation questions—not medical conclusions about which treatment you should choose.

It can also help to separate what you want written from the decision-maker role. An advance health care directive can address both health-care wishes and who may make health-care decisions, but those are distinct functions. This page focuses on conveying preferences; deciding who should have a decision-making role is a separate consideration.

• Note the preferences you want the document to communicate.
• Identify any wording or meaning you want to clarify before others rely on it.
• Keep written instructions and the question of who may make decisions distinct.

Check that your family is not relying on the wrong document

An advance health care directive concerns health-care wishes and decisions. A financial power of attorney serves a different, financial role. If someone expects a health-care directive to address financial matters, that expectation needs to be clarified rather than assumed.

As a practical review, ask what the document is intended to communicate and what people close to you believe it covers. If you are unsure what a provision means or whether the document addresses your circumstances, write down the question to discuss with a lawyer. Do not rely on the document’s title alone to answer it.

• What health-care preferences do you want others to understand?
• Is anyone expecting this document to handle financial matters?
• Which parts or meanings should be clarified before your family relies on the document?

Make the document accessible to the people who may need it

Preparing a relevant document and keeping it accessible are separate from registering information about an executed directive. Registration information and the document itself should not be treated as the same thing.

For family preparation, decide where the document will be kept and who should know how to locate it. You might ask a trusted person to tell you where they would look, without asking them to interpret your preferences. If you consider registry information, separately consider how the people involved will access the document. These are organizational questions, not instructions about completing or registering a directive.

• Choose a location that the people who may need the document can identify.
• Tell those people where to look and check that the arrangement is clear to them.
• Consider document access separately from any registry information.

Virtual planning help for Isla Vista

Isla Vista is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. has one physical office at 802 Grant Ave, Novato, California, and provides virtual services throughout California; it does not have a physical Isla Vista office.

If you want help considering how written health-care preferences fit into your planning, contact the firm at 844-492-4600 with the questions you want to discuss. This page offers general legal information, not individualized legal or medical advice.