Advance Directives


What are advance directives?

Advance directives are legal documents that provide instructions for medical care and only go into effect if you cannot communicate your own wishes.

The two most common advance directives for health care are the living will and the durable power of attorney for health care.

  • Living will: A living will is a legal document that tells doctors how you want to be treated if you cannot make your own decisions about emergency treatment. In a living will, you can say which common medical treatments or care you would want, which ones you would want to avoid, and under which conditions each of your choices applies. Learn more about preparing a living will.
  • Durable power of attorney for health care: A durable power of attorney for health care is a legal document that names your health care proxy, a person who can make health care decisions for you if you are unable to communicate these yourself. Your proxy, also known as a representative, surrogate, or agent, should be familiar with your values and wishes. A proxy can be chosen in addition to or instead of a living will. Having a health care proxy helps you plan for situations that cannot be foreseen, such as a serious car accident or stroke. Learn more about choosing a health care proxy.

Think of your advance directives as living documents that you review at least once each year and update if a major life event occurs such as retirement, moving out of state, or a significant change in your health.

An excellent external source of further information is the National Institute of Aging's Advance Care Planning: Advance Directives for Health Care website. Another is the American Bar Association's Health Care Planning Guides and Tools.

Additional information is also found below.

Three Common Forms of Advance Directive

Five Wishes

Five Wishes is written in everyday language and helps people express their wishes in areas that matter most — the personal and spiritual in addition to the medical and legal. It also helps you describe what good care means to you, whether you are seriously ill or not. It allows your caregiver to know exactly what you want. See our Five Wishes page for more information

Pennsylvania Advance Directive

This format has been developed by CaringInfo directly from Pennsylvania statute. Their packet, which can be downloaded from our Patient Forms page, contains a legal document, a Pennsylvania Advance Health Care Directive,
containing four parts, that protects your right to refuse medical treatment you do not want, or
to request treatment you do want, in the event you lose the ability to make decisions yourself.

PREPARE for your care

PREPARE is a step-by-step program with video stories to help you:

  • Have a voice in YOUR medical care
  • Talk with your doctors
  • Fill out an advance directive form to put your wishes in writing.

This material is provided by The Regents of the University of California. The material can be accessed at PREPARE, and a copy of the packet can be downloaded from our Patient Forms page.