[Health Care Directive] Flordia

Using these Materials

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

1. Check to be sure that you have the materials for each state in which you may receive health care.

2. These materials include:
   • Instructions for preparing your advance directive, please read all the
   • Your state-specific advance directive forms, which are the pages with the gray instruction bar on the left

ACTION STEPS

1. You may want to photocopy or print a second set of these forms before you start so you will have a clean copy if you need to start over.

2. When you begin to fill out the forms, refer to the gray instruction bars — they will guide you through the process.

3. Talk with your family, friends, and physicians about your advance Be sure the person you appoint to make decisions on your behalf understands your wishes.

4. Once the form is completed and signed, photocopy the form and give it to the person you have appointed to make decisions on your behalf, your family, friends, health care providers and/or faith leaders so that the form is available in the event of an emergency.

5. You may also want to save a copy of your form in an online personal health records application, program, or service that allows you to share your medical documents with your physicians, family, and others who you want to take an active role in your advance care planning.

Introduction to Your Florida Advance Directive

This packet contains a legal document 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. You may complete Part One, Part Two, or both, depending on your advance planning needs. You must complete Part Three.

Part One. The Florida Designation of Health Care Surrogate lets you name a competent adult to make decisions about your medical care, including decisions about life-prolonging procedures, if you can no longer speak for yourself. The designation of health care surrogate is especially useful because it appoints someone to speak for you any time you are unable to make your own medical decisions, not only at the end of life.

Your health care surrogate’s powers go into effect when your doctor determines that you are physically or mentally unable to communicate a willful and knowing health care decision.

Part Two. The Florida Living Will lets you state your wishes about health care in the event that you are in a persistent vegetative state, have an end-stage condition or develop a terminal condition. Your living will goes into effect when your physician determines that you have one of these conditions and can no longer make your own health care decisions.

Your living will also allows you to express your organ donation wishes.

Part Three contains the signature and witness provisions so that your document will be effective.

This form does not expressly address mental illness. If you would like to make advance care plans regarding mental illness, you should talk to your physician and an attorney about a durable power of attorney tailored to your needs. However, unless your Designation of Health Care Surrogate expressly states otherwise, your health care surrogate presumptively may make health care decisions regarding mental health treatment.

Note: These documents will be legally binding only if the person completing them is a competent adult (at least 18 years old).

Completing Your Florida Advance Directive

Whom should I appoint as my surrogate?

Your surrogate is the person you appoint to make decisions about your health care if you become unable to make those decisions yourself. Your surrogate may be a family member or a close friend whom you trust to make serious decisions. The person you name as your surrogate should clearly understand your wishes and be willing to accept the responsibility of making health care decisions for you.

You can appoint a second person as your alternate surrogate. The alternate will step in if the first person you name as a surrogate is unable, unwilling, or unavailable to act for you.

How do I make my Florida Advance Directive legal?

The law requires that you sign your Advance Directive in the presence of two adult witnesses, who must also sign the document. If you are physically unable to sign, you may have someone sign for you in your presence and at your direction and in the presence of your two witnesses.

Your surrogate and alternate surrogate cannot act as witnesses to this document. At least one of your witnesses must not be your spouse or a blood relative.

Note: You do not need to notarize your Florida Advance Directive.

Should I add personal instructions to my Florida Advance Directive?

One of the strongest reasons for naming a surrogate is to have someone who can respond flexibly as your medical situation changes and deal with situations that you did not foresee. If you add instructions to this document it may help your surrogate carry out your wishes, but be careful that you do not unintentionally restrict your surrogate’s power to act in your best interest. In any event, be sure to talk with your surrogate about your future medical care and describe what you consider to be an acceptable “quality of life.”

What if I change my mind?
You can always revoke your Florida Advance Directive. State law permits you to revoke your document in the following ways:

1. through a signed and dated writing showing your intent to revoke;
2. by physically destroying the original, or having someone destroy it for you in your presence at your direction;
3. by orally expressing your intent to revoke; or
4. by executing a new Advance Directive that supersedes the older document.

You should notify your health care provider and surrogate(s) to ensure that your revocation is effective.

If you name your spouse as your surrogate and you are divorced or your marriage is subsequently annulled, your spouse’s powers as surrogate will be automatically revoked. If you would like your spouse’s powers to continue in the event of a divorce or annulment, you can state this in the “Additional Instructions” section on page 2 of the form by adding an instruction such as, “The authority of my surrogate shall not be revoked by divorce or annulment of our marriage.”

What other facts should I know?

If you would like to give your surrogate the authority to refuse life-prolonging treatment for you in the event that you become terminally ill and incompetent while you are pregnant, you must add an instruction such as, “My surrogate has the authority to  order the withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment, even if I am pregnant,” under the “Additional Instructions” section on page 2 of the form.

Also, unless you expressly state otherwise under the “Additional Instructions” section, your health care surrogate, if you appoint one, does not have authority to authorize abortion, sterilization, electroshock therapy, psychosurgery, experimental treatments, or voluntary admission to a mental health facility.

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 1 OF 7

Part One. Designation of Health Care Surrogate

In the event that I have been determined to be incapacitated to provide informed consent for medical treatment and surgical and diagnostic procedures, I wish to designate as my surrogate for health care decisions under s. 765.202 Florida Statutes:

I fully understand that this designation will permit my designee to make health care decisions and to provide, withhold, or withdraw consent on my behalf; to apply for public benefits to defray the cost of health care; and to authorize my admission to or transfer from a health care facility.

When making health care decisions for me, my health care surrogate should think about what action would be consistent with past conversations we have had, my treatment preferences as expressed in Part Two (if I have filled out Part Two), my religious and other beliefs and values, and how I have handled medical and other important issues in the past. If what I would decide is still unclear, then my health care surrogate should make decisions for me that my health care surrogate believes are

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 2 OF 7

Part One. Designation of Health Care Surrogate

in my best interest, considering the benefits, burdens, and risks of my current circumstances and treatment options.

(Initial the following that apply):

I authorize my health care surrogate to:

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 3 OF 7

Part One. Designation of Health Care Surrogate

THIS HEALTH CARE SURROGATE DESIGNATION IS NOT AFFECTED BY MY SUBSEQUENT INCAPACITY EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN CHAPTER 765, FLORIDA STATUTES. PURSUANT TO SECTION 765.104, FLORIDA STATUTES, I UNDERSTAND THAT I MAY, AT ANY TIME WHILE

I RETAIN MY CAPACITY, REVOKE OR AMEND THIS DESIGNATION BY:

(1) SIGNING A WRITTEN AND DATED INSTRUMENT WHICH EXPRESSES MY INTENT TO AMEND OR REVOKE THIS DESIGNATION; (2) PHYSICALLY DESTROYING THIS DESIGNATION THROUGH MY OWN ACTION OR BY THAT OF ANOTHER PERSON IN MY PRESENCE AND UNDER MY DIRECTION; (3) VERBALLY EXPRESSING MY INTENTION TO AMEND OR REVOKE THIS DESIGNATION; OR (4) SIGNING A NEW DESIGNATION THAT IS MATERIALLY DIFFERENT FROM THIS DESIGNATION.

MY HEALTH CARE SURROGATE’S AUTHORITY BECOMES EFFECTIVE WHEN MY PRIMARY PHYSICIAN DETERMINES THAT I AM UNABLE TO MAKE MY OWN HEALTH CARE DECISIONS UNLESS I INITIAL EITHER OR BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING BOXES:

MY HEALTH CARE SURROGATE’S AUTHORITY BECOMES EFFECTIVE WHEN MY PRIMARY PHYSICIAN DETERMINES THAT I AM UNABLE TO MAKE MY OWN HEALTH CARE DECISIONS UNLESS I INITIAL

EITHER OR BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING BOXES:

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 4 OF 7

Additional instructions and restrictions (optional):

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 5 OF 7

Part Two. Declaration

willfully and voluntarily make known my desire that my dying not be artificially prolonged under the circumstances set forth below, and I do hereby declare that:

If at any time I am incapacitated and

(initial all that apply)

and if my attending or treating physician and another consulting physician have determined that there is no reasonable medical probability of my recovery from such condition, I direct that life-prolonging procedures be withheld or withdrawn when the application of such procedures would serve only to prolong artificially the process of dying, and that I be permitted to die naturally with only the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide me with comfort care or to alleviate pain.

It is my intention that this declaration be honored by my family and physician as the final expression of my legal right to refuse medical or surgical treatment and to accept the consequences for such refusal.

My failure to designate a health care surrogate in Part One shall not invalidate this declaration.

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 6 OF 7

ORGAN DONATION (OPTIONAL)

I hereby make this anatomical gift, if medically acceptable, to take effect on death. The words and marks below indicate my desires:

I give (initial one choice below):

FLORIDA ADVANCE DIRECTIVE – PAGE 7 OF 7

Part Three. Execution

You Have Filled Out Your Health Care Directive, Now What?

1. Your Florida Advance Directive is an important legal Keep the original signed document in a secure but accessible place. Do not put the original document in a safe deposit box or any other security box that would keep others from having access to it.

2. Give photocopies of the signed original to your surrogate and alternate surrogate, doctor(s), family, close friends, clergy, and anyone else who might become involved in your health If you enter a nursing home or hospital, have photocopies of your document placed in your medical records.

3. Be sure to talk to your surrogate(s), doctor(s), clergy, family, and friends about your wishes concerning medical Discuss your wishes with them often, particularly if your medical condition changes.

4. You may also want to save a copy of your form in an online personal health records application, program, or service that allows you to share your medical documents with your physicians, family, and others who you want to take an active role in your advance care planning.

5. If you want to make changes to your documents after they have been signed and witnessed, you must complete a new document.

6. Remember, you can always revoke your Florida document.

7. Be aware that your Florida document will not be effective in the event of a medical Ambulance and hospital emergency department personnel are required to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) unless they are given a separate directive that states otherwise. These directives called “prehospital medical care directives” or “do not resuscitate orders” are designed for people whose poor health gives them little chance of benefiting from CPR. These directives instruct ambulance and hospital emergency personnel not to attempt CPR if your heart or breathing should stop.

Currently not all states have laws authorizing these orders. We suggest you speak to your physician if you are interested in obtaining one.