Advance Health Care Directives in Traver, Tulare County

Begin with the preferences you want recorded

First consider what you want others to understand about your health-care wishes if you cannot communicate them yourself. An advance health care directive can express those wishes. Identifying a person to make health-care decisions is another function the directive can serve; choosing that person is not a substitute for considering what instructions you want to convey.

A useful way to clarify your goal is to separate the document’s two possible purposes: written preferences and selection of a health-care decision-maker. You may want to focus on one or address both. The decision about treatment preferences is personal and medical questions should be discussed with your health-care professionals, rather than answered by general legal information.

• What preferences do you want the document to communicate?
• Do you also want to identify someone to make health-care decisions?
• Which questions about care should you discuss with your health-care professionals?

Use records and questions to make the decision concrete

Before discussing a directive, gather any existing advance health care directive and review what it says about your wishes. Note what you want to keep, clarify, or discuss. This is a practical preparation step: the directive’s purpose is to express health-care wishes and may also identify a decision-maker.

You can also write down the situations or concerns that lead you to consider a directive. For example, you might want to discuss how your values should inform care if you cannot speak for yourself. That is a prompt for reflection, not a recommendation about any treatment. Questions about likely medical consequences belong with your care professionals; the document should communicate your own preferences.

• Bring or locate an existing directive, if you have one.
• List the preferences you want to communicate and any questions you still need to resolve.
• Keep financial planning separate: a financial power of attorney serves a different role and does not perform the health-care function described here.

Make the document findable when it may be needed

Think about accessibility as part of communicating your wishes. Decide where the relevant document will be kept and how the people who may need it will know where to find it. Preparing and keeping the document accessible is distinct from registering information about an executed directive.

California’s Advance Health Care Directive Registry concerns information about an executed directive. Registry information and the directive itself are separate parts of planning: registering information is not a substitute for preparing a document that expresses your preferences. Consider both the document’s contents and how its location will be communicated.

• Identify a place to keep the directive where it can be located when needed.
• Decide which people should know where it is and how they can access it.
• Treat registry information as distinct from the document and its written instructions.

Virtual planning support for Traver

Traver is an unincorporated community in Tulare County, not a location of a Codi M. Dada Law Office P.C. branch. The firm provides virtual services throughout California from its one physical office in Novato.

A practical next step is to gather any existing directive and prepare a short list of the preferences you want it to communicate, the person you may want to identify for health-care decisions, and questions for your health-care professionals. You can then discuss the document’s role and whether your focus is written instructions, identifying a decision-maker, or both. General legal information cannot determine which medical choices are right for you.