WHAT IF I CHANGE MY MIND?
You can change or cancel your advance directive at any
time as long as you can communicate your wishes. To
change the person you want to make your healthcare
decisions, you must sign a statement or tell the doctor in
charge of your care.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE ELSE MAKES
DECISIONS ABOUT MY TREATMENT?
The same rules apply to anyone who makes healthcare
decisions on your behalf – a healthcare agent, a surrogate
whose name you gave to your doctor, or a person
appointed by a court to make decisions for you. All are
required to follow your Health
Care Instructions or, if none,
your general wishes about
treatment, including stopping
treatment. If your treatment
wishes are not known, the
surrogate must try to determine
what is in your best interest.
The people providing your health
care must follow the decisions of your agent or surrogate
unless a requested treatment would be bad medical
practice or ineffective in helping you. If this causes
disagreement that cannot be worked out, the provider
must make a reasonable effort to find another healthcare
provider to take over your treatment.
WILL I STILL BE TREATED IF I DON’T MAKE AN
ADVANCE DIRECTIVE?
Absolutely. You will still get 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.
Remember that:
• A POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE lets
you name an agent to make decisions for you. 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.
• YOU CAN CREATE AN INDIVIDUAL HEALTHCARE
INSTRUCTION by writing down your wishes about
health care or by talking with your doctor and asking the
doctor to record your wishes in your medical file. If you
know when you would or would not want certain types
of treatment, an Instruction provides a good way to make
your wishes clear to your doctor and to anyone else who
may be involved in deciding about treatment on your
behalf.
• THESE TWO TYPES OF ADVANCE HEALTHCARE
DIRECTIVES may be used together or separately.
To implement Public Law 101-508, the California
Consortium on Patient Self-Determination prepared
this brochure in 1991; it was revised in 2000 by the
California Department of Health Services, with input
from members of the consortium and other interested
parties, to reflect changes in state law.
HOW CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
MAKING AN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE?
Ask your doctor, nurse, social worker, or healthcare provider
to get more information for you. You can have a lawyer
write an advance directive for you, or you can complete an
advance directive by filling in the blanks on a form.
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES AGENCY
DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL SERVICES
PUB 325 (12/16)
Your Right To
Make Decisions
About Medical
Treatment
This brochure explains your right to
make healthcare decisions and how you
can plan now for your medical care if
you are unable to speak for yourself in
the future.
A federal law requires us to give you this
information. We hope this information
will help increase your control over your
medical treatment.
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WHO DECIDES ABOUT MY
TREATMENT?
Your doctors will give you
information and advice about
treatment. You have the right to
choose. You can say “Yes” to
treatments you want. You can
say “No” to any treatment that
you don’t want – even if the
treatment might keep you alive longer.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT I WANT?
Your doctor must tell you about your medical
condition and about what different treatments and
pain management alternatives can do for you. Many
treatments have “side effects.” Your doctor must offer
you information about problems that medical treatment
is likely to cause you.
Often, more than one treatment might help you – and
people have different ideas about which is best. Your
doctor can tell you which treatments are available to
you, but your doctor can’t choose for you. That choice is
yours to make and depends on what is important to you.
CAN OTHER PEOPLE HELP WITH MY DECISIONS?
Yes. Patients often turn to their relatives and close
friends for help in making medical decisions. These
people can help you think about the choices you face.
You can ask the doctors and nurses to talk with your
relatives and friends. They can ask the doctors and
nurses questions for you.
CAN I CHOOSE A RELATIVE OR FRIEND TO MAKE
HEALTHCARE DECISIONS FOR ME?
Yes. You may tell your doctor that you want someone
else to make healthcare decisions for you. Ask the
doctor to list that person as your healthcare“surrogate”
in your medical record. The surrogate’s control
over your medical decisions is effective only
during treatment for your current illness or injury
or, if you are in a medical facility, until you leave
the facility.
WHAT IF I BECOME TOO SICK TO MAKE MY
OWN HEALTHCARE DECISIONS?
If you haven’t named a surrogate, your doctor will
ask your closest available relative or friend to help
decide what is best for you. Most of the time that
works. But sometimes everyone doesn’t agree
about what to do. That’s why it is helpful if you
can say in advance what you want to happen if
you can’t speak for yourself.
DO I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I AM SICK TO
EXPRESS MY WISHES ABOUT HEALTH CARE?
No. In fact, it is better to choose before you get
very sick or have to go into a hospital, nursing
home, or other healthcare facility. You can use an
Advance Health Care Directive to say who you
want to speak for you and what kind of treatments
you want. These documents are called “advance”
because you prepare one before healthcare
decisions need to be made. They are called
“directives” because they state who will speak
on your behalf and what should be done.
In California, the part of an advance directive you
can use to appoint an agent to make healthcare
decisions is called a Power of Attorney For Health
Care. The part where you can express what you
want done is called an Individual Health Care
Instruction.
WHO CAN MAKE AN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE?
You can if you are 18 years or older and are capable
of making your own medical decisions. You do not
need a lawyer.
WHO CAN I NAME AS MY AGENT?
You can choose an adult relative or any other person you
trust to speak for you when medical decisions must be
made.
WHEN DOES MY AGENT BEGIN MAKING MY
MEDICAL DECISIONS?
Usually, a healthcare agent will make decisions only
after you lose the ability to make them yourself. But, if
you wish, you can state in the Power of Attorney for
Health Care that you want the agent to begin making
decisions immediately.
HOW DOES MY AGENT KNOW
WHAT I WOULD WANT?
After you choose your agent, talk to
that person about what you want.
Sometimes treatment decisions are
hard to make, and it truly helps if
your agent knows what you want.
You can also write your wishes
down in your advance directive.
WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO NAME AN AGENT?
You can still write out your wishes in your advance
directive, without naming an agent. You can say that
you want to have your life continued as long as possible.
Or you can say that you would not want treatment to
continue your life. Also, you can express your wishes
about the use of pain relief or any other type of medical
treatment.
Even if you have not filled out a written Individual
Health Care Instruction, you can discuss your wishes
with your doctor, and ask your doctor to list those
wishes in your medical record. Or you can discuss your
wishes with your family members or friends. But it will
probably be easier to follow your wishes if you write
them down.
