Care Partners believes in empowering older adults to document their healthcare wishes to ensure medical teams and medical decision makers can honor their wishes during a medical emergency in which they cannot speak for themselves. If you are interested in an Advance Care Planning group workshop, please contact us. We can also help complete and validate the Advance Health Care Directive form.
Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD) Form – The AHCD Form is a legal tool to document your medical wishes and assign your medical decision makers for situations where you cannot make decisions for yourself.
- It’s free to complete
- Does not expire
- Does not require an attorney
- Can be updated at any time
- Is suitable for anyone at or above the age of 18 with mental capacity to complete the form
- It requires one notary or two witnesses to sign this form with you for it to be legally valid.
- Care Partners can help you fill it out!
- Visit the Prepare for Your Care Website today to access the form.
- Physician Orders of Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Form (PDF) – A POLST form is a medical order that informs emergency healthcare professionals what to do during a medical crisis.
| POLST | Advance Health Care Directive | |
|---|---|---|
| Type of document | Medical Order | Legal Document |
| How long is the form? | 1 Page | Multiple pages |
| Who completes | Healthcare Professional (Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, etc.) with patient | Individual |
| When to complete | Anytime | Anytime |
| Who is recommended to have | Seriously ill or frail (any age) | All cognitively competent adults |
| Appoints medical decision maker? | No | Yes |
| What is communicated | Specific medical orders for treatment wishes during a medical emergency | General wishes about future medical treatments |
| Does Emergency Medical Services personnel have easy access | Yes | No |
| Where to locate | Refrigerator door or back of front door | Keep original document in a safe place. Provide a copy to your medical team and your decision makers. |