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Schedule a Free ConsultationAdvance Healthcare Directives Attorney in McAllen
Making Your Wishes Known to Your Loved Ones to Ensure the Proper Medical Treatment and End-of-Life Care
When most people think about estate planning in Texas, they consider various types of trusts or a last will. While those estate planning documents are the foundation upon which most estate plans are built, some people have unique needs or concerns that are more easily addressed by other estate planning measures. Advance healthcare directives are one such estate planning document that you could include, which expresses your wishes regarding your health care if you are ever unable to speak for yourself due to severe injuries or left terminally ill. Advanced directives provide clear instructions to healthcare professionals and make matters easier for your family.
Under Texas law, different types of advanced care directives are available, and each person should consult with an estate planning lawyer to determine which tool is most suitable for their needs.
Our McAllen law firm, serving South Texas, is staffed by experienced legal professionals dedicated to helping clients and their families with complex matters related to estate planning and making plans for the future. With our assistance, we hope to give you and your loved ones peace of mind as we march into the unknown days ahead.
To learn more about how advance directives can help you, please contact our Texas law office to schedule your free initial consultation with the lawyer today.
What Do Advance Directives Accomplish in Texas?
Advance directives are medical care outlines detailing what family members and physicians should do if a person cannot speak for themselves or make critical medical decisions. Though there are many similarities, every state has its own forms related to healthcare directives. The primary function of an advanced directive is to clarify a patient’s health care wishes and end-of-life decisions before medical issues arise when the patient is incapacitated.
Advance care directives are relatively small legal documents to include in your estate plan. Still, they are crucial in establishing your wishes and ensuring proper care when you cannot care for yourself.
We recommend reviewing your healthcare directives every few years and making changes accordingly. A new medical diagnosis of a terminal illness or disease, as well as a new marriage or divorce, would require more timely updates.
Do Advance Directives Address End-of-Life Care and Life Sustaining Treatment?
Advanced medical directives not only detail your medical treatment to the health care providers if you are ever unable to speak for yourself, but they also provide instructions about end-of-life care. For example, an out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate (DNR) form tells medical professionals not to resuscitate you in a state of emergency, but instead to allow you to pass away in a natural death. The DNR does not affect medical treatment designed to make you more comfortable or reduce pain, but simply establishes your wishes not to be resuscitated or have your life prolonged.
To learn more about DNRs and their many benefits, please contact our law firm to schedule a free case review today.
What Are the Different Types of Healthcare Directives Available Under Texas Law?
Texas residents looking to expand their estate plans have many advanced healthcare directives available. Our estate planning attorney will review your goals and help determine which tools suit your needs.
Some examples of healthcare directives available in South Texas include the following:
- Living wills
- Do not resuscitate orders
- Do not intubate orders
- Organ donor registration
- Medical power of attorney designations
- Designation of a healthcare proxy
- Psychiatric advance directives
- Declaration for mental health care
- Statutory durable power of attorney
Our compassionate legal team is well-versed in the various estate planning measures that can be used for advanced healthcare directives. Contact our attorney for a free case evaluation.
What Are the Differences Between Advance Directives and Medical Power of Attorney Documents?
Medical powers of attorney documents are one type of advanced directive in Texas. If you create a medical power of attorney, you establish someone and entrust that person with express authority to make critical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated or unable to make clear decisions on your own.
Who you select for your medical care with the medical power of attorney is a solemn and essential decision. You must choose someone not part of your medical care team who can discuss end-of-life matters, meets the state requirements for health care proxies, clearly understands your wishes, and can keep a level head in stressful situations.
What Are Living Wills?
Living wills are advance directives to physicians which establish your wishes regarding life-sustaining medical treatment or procedures when your condition is considered terminal or otherwise irreversible.
There are many benefits to having a living will in your estate plan. To learn more, please contact us today.
How to Go About Creating an Advance Healthcare Directive?
Those who do not have advance directives could see their health care treatment wishes go unfulfilled if they are ever unable to speak for themselves due to injury or illness. This could create disagreements and schisms between your surviving loved ones who may have opposing ideas about how to handle your medical treatment. Creating an advanced directive that makes your wishes known is essential for these and other reasons.
The most opportune time to create a health care directive is before any medical emergency or terminal illness develops. Any adult in Texas, regardless of age, finances, or health status, could benefit from having an advanced directive in their estate plan.
Contact our law office for clear instructions on creating and including your advanced directive in your comprehensive estate plan.
Schedule a Free Consultation with an Advance Healthcare Directives Attorney in McAllen, TX, Today
Our legal team is staffed by highly skilled and compassionate individuals dedicated to helping clients within the McAllen and South Texas community make their wishes known and simplify legal matters in anticipation of future concerns. As your legal representative, we will explore all options and opportunities to ensure that you get the right kind of legal plan in place that suits your goals.
Schedule a free, no-obligation case evaluation by calling us today at 956-707-3610.