Plan who speaks for your health care

When this guidance is useful

For people planning future treatment decisions and families or clinicians helping them.

Explanation compared 2026-10-05; other source dates remain as listed.

Discuss what matters to you

Advance care planning is useful before a crisis, at any age or stage of health.

Talk with your care team and someone you trust about treatment questions, daily life and your priorities.

Official action:

Choose a health care agent

A health care agent can speak for treatment within applicable authority if you cannot decide.

Discuss the role with the person and any backup you want to name. A VA fiduciary appointment or benefits representative appointment does not itself appoint a health care agent.

Official action:

Use the official advance directive

VA Form 10-0137 records an agent and wishes for medical, mental-health, long-term and other care.

Read the current form and companion instructions, including signing and witness requirements. Give copies to the care team and chosen agent; discuss changes when your wishes change.

Official action:

Current official form revision: March 2024. VetCore links the original and explains its purpose; it does not supply a complete field walkthrough or a submission-ready directive.

When someone cannot make a treatment decision

Treatment-decision capacity concerns the specific decision at the relevant time. It can change; the care team uses the applicable assessment and surrogate process.

Ask the care team about communication support, the capacity assessment, and the applicable agent or surrogate. If no appropriate surrogate is available, ask about VA’s ethics and decision process.

Official action:

A diagnosis of dementia, a high mental-health rating, physical difficulty signing or financial help does not answer every capacity question.

An advance directive records wishes and appoints an agent. A clinician’s do-not-resuscitate order addresses CPR; it does not mean that every other treatment stops.