Advance Directives ensure your future health.

What would you do if you became incapacitated and unable to make decisions about your own health care? Nobody likes to think about being in that state of helplessness. But the American Medical Association estimates that 60 percent of Americans will be in that situation one day. Advance directives exist for just this reason.

 
An advance directive is a written document that lets you specify what type of medical care you want in the future, should you lose the ability to make those decisions and communicate them for yourself. It also allows you to appoint an “agent,” someone you choose to speak on your behalf. The most current type of advance directive is the Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD) which became effective in July, 2000 as part of the Health Care Decisions Law. This law consolidated California’s previous advance directive laws with the intent to make it easier for individuals to make their health care wishes known.

The new AHCD makes granting your wishes easier.

The AHCD is a simpler, more generic form that replaces other advance directive forms such as the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, the Directive to Physicians and the Natural Death Declaration. If you have a previously executed advance directive, it is still valid unless you have it rescinded. The AHCD can be completed by anyone who is 18 years of age or older and of sound mind. And you don’t need an attorney to complete the advance directive form. It must either be notarized or witnessed by two people. Specific requirements for who can act as a witness are outlined in the document.

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