If you become incapacitated (unable to speak or make decisions), someone else will need to make care decisions on your behalf.
You can choose in advance who that person will be. That’s the best way to obtain the care you would want and avoid what you wouldn’t want.
Don’t assume that the best person will be put in charge of your care decisions.
You need to choose who will decide for you!
Our free and simple 2-page guide will help you choose the best person.
The law in California does not select the person to make your care decisions. It’s not automatically your spouse or your child. It’s not automatically your parents. If you want the best result, you need to choose. Even if it were automatic (like it is in some other states), the automatic choice might not be the best choice.
About the guide
To help you choose, we’ve created a free and simple 2-page guide. It provides a scorecard and lists the six key comparison factors along with a point system.
The key factors are:
- Legal Age
- Clearheadedness
- Availability
- Communicating About Personal Things
- Asserting and Persuading
- Honoring Your Wishes
You use the point system and the scorecard to rank your top decision-maker candidates. To find your best person.
Our team has many years of experience with care decisions, hospital bioethics, elder law and nursing. They’ve seen care planning done poorly, and done well. Based on their experience,
- They believe that advance directives are crucial and valuable.
- But they believe that the success of an advance directive depends on the person named in the advance directive to make care decisions. In other words, an advance directive is only as effective as the person you name. So name the best person.
- They urge everyone to do the “people-work” of choosing the best person, and then right away do the paperwork of signing an advance directive.
This page gives you the free and simple 2-page guide to help you choose the best person. Click here for a no-frills advance directive form created for California.
Don’t choose based on superficial appearances
After the guide
- Make your selections official in an up-to-date Health Care Power of Attorney / Advance Directive document. You can do this yourself, just follow the instructions carefully. Click for a no-frills advance directive form created for California.
- In the document name your top three in Total Points order (first, then second, then third). If you don’t have three, name two. If you don’t have two, name one. Do not name co-agents with equal authority (equal authority can lead to a stand-off).
- Tell everyone who might be involved (family and friends) about your selections.
- Communicate with those you’ve selected. Let them know your wishes, what you care about, what makes life worth living. Have a real heart-to-heart discussion.
- And down the road (every year or so, or when there are changes in your life), review and update your selections. And update your heart-to-heart discussion.
Use and share the guide, it’s free
We give you permission to copy the guide as is and share it as is for personal use. It may not be sold.
The guide is a copyrighted publication of Caring House, Incorporated. All rights are reserved.