Why Do I Need an Advance Health Care Directive?

We are now more conscious than ever that disease might strike at any time and that our health is precarious. With the help of a Pasadena advance healthcare directive lawyer from Barilari & Williams, you may make some of your healthcare decisions in advance.

An “advance health care directive” serves the same purpose as a durable power of attorney for healthcare in California. Your advance health care directive can be written so that it takes effect when you are no longer physically or mentally able to make decisions about your health care.

An advance health care directive may include palliative care, do not resuscitate requests, anatomical donations, and other topics. Your advance directive can specify whether you want to be buried or cremated, list the surgical treatments you would and won’t allow, and approve an autopsy.

How Does a Health Care Advance Directive Operate?

With an advance health care directive, a person you pick in advance (your “agent”) collaborates with your medical professionals and makes health care decisions on your behalf following your specific instructions or in light of their knowledge of the possibilities you would select.

It would help if you entrusted someone you fully trust with making decisions on your medical care. With an advance health care directive, your authorized agent often has the following powers:

1. Choose or alter your medical providers

2. Select the medical center where you will receive treatment 

3. Pay you a visit

4. Accept or deny specific medical procedures for you

Why is it so essential to draft an advanced healthcare directive?

If you are incapable of making choices about your medical care or are otherwise unable to do so, and if you do not make arrangements for someone to do so on your behalf, your family may need to ask a court to establish a conservatorship or guardianship.

Do not compel your family members to appear in court. Establishing a conservatorship or guardianship in California is costly, time-consuming, and stressful. Nevertheless, when you have an advanced health care directive, this type of problem is prevented.

You should choose the medical care you want and don’t want before writing your advance health care directive. You should also select a trusted agent. An attorney from Barilari & Williams in Pasadena can assist you in carefully weighing your alternatives.

What More Regarding Advance Health Care Directives Should You Know?

A living will (your instructions for your medical treatment) and a medical power of attorney are combined in an advance health care directive for convenience (which empowers your designated agent to make health care choices for you and on your behalf). These are two distinct legal papers in various states.

Nobody can predict the future, but if you’ve written an advance health care directive, you may rest easy knowing that others will follow your directions if you cannot make decisions.

Barilari & Williams, who have offices in Pasadena and Long Beach, may draft an advance health care directive that accurately outlines your instructions. Your initial consultation with Barilari & Williams is free of charge. To set up that consultation, contact us right away at 888-EST-PLAN.