Mary Szondy is a healthcare directive attorney with more than a decade of experience helping individuals and families plan for their future.
What is a healthcare directive and how does it work?
A healthcare directive allows any individual over the age of 18 to provide instructions for what they would want done with their healthcare in the event they were not able to make their wishes known.
As part of a healthcare directive, an individual can specify a person, such as a parent or spouse, to make healthcare decisions for them if they are not able to make those decisions themselves.
A healthcare directive is a legal document which names an agent to make decisions on behalf of the client, and which the family and providers are required to follow.
Healthcare directives are also known as advanced care directives, personal care directives and advanced directives.
Can I make changes to my advance directive?
It’s possible to revoke your healthcare directive at any time, and the revocation takes effect immediately upon you communicating it orally or in writing.
You can also create a new healthcare directive at any time. Your new healthcare directive automatically overrides your previous one.
