Advance Directives
Advance Care Planning
Advance care planning involves deciding what medical care and treatments you want or don’t want to receive if you become critically ill or injured and can no longer make decisions for yourself. It also includes designating someone you trust to make those choices for you. There are a few key parts to the advance care planning process:
- Identifying Your Priorities - Think about which abilities, experiences, and quality of life are most important to you if you are unable to speak for yourself. This helps decide about using life-support treatment. Talk to loved ones about what matters most and your priorities.
- Picking a Decision Maker - Pick one main person and backup people who can legally make health care choices if you cannot. Make sure they can take on the responsibility and will follow what you want.
- Deciding Which Treatments You Want - Decide which medical interventions you would or would not want performed to save or lengthen your life, like CPR, breathing machine, or feeding tube. Note any exceptions.
- Completing an Advance Directive - Write down your preferences in a legal document to give to your doctors and family. An advance directive states the care you want and names who you want to decide for you if you cannot. Putting your wishes in an Advance Directive is the best way to make sure you get the medical care you want later on.
- Communicating Your Choices - Inform family members and health providers of your priorities verbally and by placing copies of your advance directive in your medical record and with your decision maker.
Writing down your preferences in an advance directive allows you and your family to make sure doctors follow your wishes if you are in a difficult medical situation and cannot speak for yourself.
Completing an Advance Directive
The VA Advance Directive includes sections that allow you to identify the person who would make decisions for you (also called a Health Care Agent) and to specify your treatment preferences. Those sections are:
- Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care – Allows you to identify a Health Care Agent, the person who would make health care decisions for you if you are unable to make decisions for yourself.
- Living Will – Allows you to indicate the treatments you would and would not want, such as resuscitation, mechanical ventilation (breathing machine) and feeding tube.
What You Should Know About Advance Directives
Here is an informational guide with common questions and answers.
Link to the VA informational guide about Advance Directives
Podcast on what is an Advance Directive
Why it's a good idea to fill out an advance directive, and what you might want to think about before you do.
