Planning for Incapacity or End-of-Life Decisions
California health care directives can be considered the most readable, yet also least readable estate planning document. While the language is straightforward, contemplating your own mortality or incapacity is a difficult concept for many — regardless of their stage in life. However, getting proper documentation in place is necessary, not only to ensure your wishes are followed — whatever those wishes may be — but also to ensure medical records can be accessed in emergency situations and to guide your loved ones to make decisions which are in accord with your desires.
Our Woodland Hills advanced health care directives lawyer can help you clearly document your wishes in a format that is enforceable under California law. Contact the Law Offices of Yacoba Ann Feldman to discuss your concerns with an experienced, responsive, and knowledgeable attorney.
Understanding and Creating Your Advanced Health Care Directive
Advanced health care directives allow you to establish guidelines for how you want your health care to be handled when you lack the physical or mental capacity to communicate your wishes. In addition to defining your intentions, however, it allows you to appoint an individual to handle such decisions — in accordance with your guidelines — if or when that time should come.
Many people associate advanced health care directives (also commonly known as living wills, health care proxy,designation of surrogate, power of attorney for health care, directives to physicians) with communicating with others that you do not wish to have life-sustaining treatment under certain conditions. However, not only can you communicate the opposite wishes, you can address a multitude of other choices:
- Set the standard for determining your incapacity
- Communicate your wishes to receive full life-sustaining care or only certain types of life-sustaining care
- Ensure decisions are made in accordance with your beliefs, principles or religious practices (even if your agent does not have the same beliefs or principles)
- Provide authority for loved ones to obtain medical records in emergency situations
- Indicate whether the document is effective immediately or upon a finding of incapacity
- Address other health care wishes that you feel strongly about
Creating your advanced health care directives is a very personal process. Estate planning attorney Jaci Feldman can help you understand the document, explain your opportunity to convey important desires to loved ones and doctors and validate your intentions.
It is important to understand that your health care directives are just that — they direct your care, your wishes, your intentions. Just as it is acceptable to communicate that certain types of care are not in accordance with your beliefs, it is equally acceptable to communicate that you wish to receive all necessary and available care. It is also important to realize that while your health care directives can fully document your intentions and appoint an agent to comply with the guidelines set forth, it is still just a document. It is critical that you communicate with your doctors, family members, and other loved ones to ensure they realize you have established advanced health care directives that they are to follow.
If you have questions about creating your advanced health care directives, or for assistance ensuring your out-of-state health care directives or powers of attorney are enforceable under California law, contact the Law Offices of Yacoba Ann Feldman.
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