Advance Directives

A Simple and Smart Way to Take Charge of Your Care

One of the most important decisions you can make about your care is to fill out advance directives in case you can no longer speak for yourself. Advance directives are documents that let others know your wishes about the type of care you want. And they will only be used if you become unconscious or too ill to communicate yourself.

Advance directives have many titles, like living wills, advance care plans, healthcare directives, durable power of attorney for healthcare and appointment of healthcare agent. Advance directives need either two witnesses or a notary public to validate your signature.

Both of these advance directives contain a set of instructions that direct your doctors about your wishes for life-sustaining medical care. It covers such things as artificial feeding, IV fluids, ventilation, CPR and more. 

This is the person you appoint to make your medical decisions if you are unable to do. Choose someone you know well and trust to represent your preferences. This person needs to be fully informed about what you want or don’t want. Remember that your healthcare agent may have to use his or her own judgment in the event of a medical decision in which your wishes are not known, so choose someone you trust.

For healthcare: This is a legal document that names your healthcare agent or proxy. The agent you have named will be the person your healthcare providers will consult to direct the course of your medical treatment when you can no longer do it yourself.



For finances: A durable power of attorney for finances is a separate legal document from the power of attorney for healthcare. Your healthcare proxy can also do this if you’d like.