Mature father and son having a conversation

Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives

We don’t often like to think about the end of our lives or the possibility of being so ill that we’re incapacitated — but being prepared can make a stressful situation less stressful for you and your loved ones. That’s where advance care planning comes in.

Advance care planning is the process of thinking and talking about future medical decisions if you had a sudden event, like an accident or illness, and could not make your own decisions. The best time to make these decisions is when you can choose for yourself. An advance directive helps you share those decisions.

Understanding Advance Directives

We use the term “advance directives” to refer to several documents that will help the people caring for you understand your wishes. Advance directive documents allow you to give instructions to your health care provider if you can’t speak for yourself due to injury or illness. These documents don’t have to be complicated — they can be short, simple statements that express your values and choices. 

Here are a few examples: 

  • Idaho Living Will for Health Care: This document allows you to state your wishes about medical care in the even you are terminally ill and can no longer make your own decisions. Also, if you can’t make or communicate your wishes or decisions due to a sudden illness or injury a living will for health care allows you to keep control over the health care decisions that are important to you. You may state your wishes about any part of your health care, including decisions about life-sustaining treatment. You do not have to get this form witnessed or notarized.
  • Physician Order for Scope of Treatment, or POST: A POST is a document, signed by your physician, that expresses your treatment wishes. Your POST order will be followed by emergency medical personnel, medical care providers, and health institutions in Idaho. Your provider is able to complete a POST order within your electronic medical record, and once the POST is completed, you may have it added to the State Health Care Directives Registry. For more information, visit Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's Advance Directives and Registry Services.
  • Patient Statements:  You may give a verbal directive to your physician, but it must be documented in your medical record before it is considered valid.