Advance Care Planning & Advance Directives

Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of preparing for future medical care, particularly if you became seriously ill and/or unable to communicate your wishes. The goal of ACP is to ensure that the medical treatments you receive match your goals and values. It may also help relieve family members of their concerns in making difficult decisions on your behalf.

An advance directive is a form documenting your wishes about future medical care in the event you are unable to express them yourself. You do not need an attorney to help you complete this form. In fact, you can call the number below which corresponds with the nearest hospital in your area to schedule an appointment to complete this form with a trained facilitator.

An Advance Directive includes two important parts:

• Choosing someone to be your voice when you cannot speak for yourself. Make sure whomever you choose knows what is important to you and can honor your wishes. This person is commonly called a health care agent, health care proxy, surrogate decision maker or Medical Power of Attorney.
• Documenting the kind of medical treatment you want or don’t want. This is called your living will. Interested in learning more? Explore the list of resources below.

It helps your friends, family, and medical team know about what your wishes are for your healthcare if you are unable to speak for yourself. This way, your treatment team, friends, and family will not have to guess what you want. For this reason, having your health care agent/ medical power of attorney familiar with your wishes has been shown to lessen the fear and anxiety they may feel throughout this process.

• A healthcare surrogate will need to be assigned to make decisions on your behalf if you cannot do so. This may not necessarily be someone who knows you or what is important to you.
• Each state has their own laws for this situation. In most states, this is normally the order for next of kin: Spouse, adult child(ren), parent, sibling, and then possibly other relatives.

• Advance directives are for all adults over 18.
• We never know when an accident or serious illness will leave us incapable of expressing our own healthcare decisions.

• Yes. Your Advance Directive becomes effective only when you’re not capable of expressing your own wishes.

• No. A medical power of attorney (MPOA) is someone you have appointed to make healthcare decisions on your behalf. This should be someone who you are confident will know your wishes and be able to voice them on your behalf, even if it is not what they would want for you or for themselves.
• A power of attorney (also sometimes called a financial power of attorney) is someone you have appointed to make financial and legal decisions and commitments on your behalf.
• Note that a personal representative is also not the same as a medical power of attorney and cannot make healthcare decisions on your behalf.

• No, but you can choose to have one person serve in both roles if you would like.

• Yes. In the event that the first person you name is either unwilling or unable to make decisions, the backup person can take their place.
• If you cannot think of a good backup person to name, it is still important to complete an advance directive. Having one person is better than having none at all!

• Make sure the document is easily legible.
• Keep your form in place it can easily be found; don’t keep it locked up.
• Give a copy to the person you have named as your health care agent and your backup agent.
• Give a copy to your primary care provider.
• You can also mail a copy to P.O. Box 3317 Winchester, VA 22604 for inclusion in your medical record.

• Yes, but you will need to complete a new advance directive form to replace the old one.
• Complete the new form and follow the same steps as above.
• Tell those with old forms that they are now outdated, and make sure you give your new form to the people and places noted above.
• Outdated forms should not be kept. Shred them if possible.