Advance Health Care Directives in Camp Nelson, Tulare County

Separate the instructions from the decision-making role

Written treatment preferences communicate your wishes; naming a health-care decision-maker identifies someone who may make health-care decisions for you. These functions can appear in an advance health care directive, but they answer different questions. What would you want people to know about your care? And whom do you want identified to make decisions?

The person named in a directive has a health-care decision-making role. That does not, by itself, make the person responsible for your finances. A financial power of attorney serves a different financial role. If you want someone to handle financial matters as well, treat that as a separate planning question rather than assuming the health-care document grants that authority.

• Consider what treatment preferences you want to communicate in writing.
• Separately consider whom you want identified to make health-care decisions.
• Do not treat a health-care directive as a financial power of attorney.

Make your preferences understandable and usable

A useful preparation step is to write down the preferences you want the directive to communicate and consider whether the wording expresses what you mean. You can also note questions to discuss with your health-care decision-maker. These are planning prompts, not medical recommendations; decisions about appropriate care belong in a discussion with qualified health-care professionals.

For example, you might want to explain which personal values should guide decisions if you cannot speak for yourself. The example is a prompt for reflection, not a recommendation about a particular treatment or a substitute for individualized medical advice.

Plan how people can locate the document

Preparing a directive and keeping it accessible are practical parts of planning. Consider who should know where the document is kept and how the person named in it could locate it when needed. A document that is difficult for the relevant people to find may not communicate your preferences when they are looking for them.

California also has an Advance Health Care Directive Registry. Keeping the document accessible and registering information about an executed directive are distinct steps; registration is not the same thing as preparing or keeping the directive itself. Consider which approach to access and record-keeping fits your circumstances.

• Identify the people who may need to know where the directive is kept.
• Consider separately whether to register information about an executed directive.

Check what authority the document does—and does not—address

An advance health care directive addresses health-care wishes and may identify someone to make health-care decisions. It is not the same as a financial power of attorney. If your planning also involves financial decisions, ask separately what document or authority is intended to cover them; do not infer that authority from the health-care directive.

A useful next step is to identify what you want the directive to say, whom you want named for health-care decisions, and any questions about how the document’s role differs from other planning documents. Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. provides virtual services throughout California from its single physical office in Novato.