It’s better to make medical decisions before you get very sick or have to go into a hospital, nursing home, or other health care facility. Simply fill out an “Advance Health Care Directive” document, in which you’ll indicate an adult family member or friend as your health care “agent” (see below) to speak for you and what kind of treatments you want. You can complete this document yourself (you don’t need a lawyer) if you are 18 or older and are capable of making your own medical decisions.

This document is called “Advance” because you prepare one before health care decisions need to be made. It’s called “Directive” because the document states who will speak on your behalf and what should be done.

The Advance Health Care Directive may include two parts: a “Power of Attorney for Health Care,” and an “Individual Health Care Instruction.” They may be used together or separately.

• In California, the part of an Advance Health Care Directive document that you can use to appoint an agent to make health care decisions for you is called a “Power of Attorney for Health Care.” Your agent can make most medical decisions, not just those about life-sustaining treatment, when you can’t speak for yourself. You can also let your agent make decisions earlier, if you wish.
• The part where you can express what you want done is called an “Individual Health Care Instruction,” which you create by writing down your wishes about health care or by talking with your doctor and asking him/her to record your wishes in your medical file. If you know when you would or would not want certain types of treatment, the Individual Health Care Instruction provides a good way to make your wishes clear to your doctor and anyone else who may be involved in deciding about treatment on your behalf.

Of course, even if you do not complete an “Advance Health Care Directive” document, you will still receive medical treatment. We just want you to know that if you become too sick to make decisions, someone else will have to make them for you.

You can change or cancel your Advance Health Care Directive instructions at any time, as long as you can communicate your wishes to the doctor in charge of your care.