What Are Advance Directives?

Advance directives are legal documents (e.g., health care proxies, durable powers of attorney, or living wills) that give patients control over their medical care at end of life, should the capacity to make decisions be lost due to coma, dementia, or inability to communicate due to terminal illness.

Advance directives are completed by patients in consultation with their health care providers, family members, and significant others.

Advance Directives Form

The Advance Directives form for California is available in the following languages:

English (PDF, 59k)

Chinese (PDF, 315k)

Russian (PDF, 52k)

Spanish (PDF, 63k)

Additional Resources

Learn more about advance directives by accessing additional resources such as a fact sheet provided by the American Hospital Association, advance directive documents and instructions for each state, and links to valuable Web sites.