At any time, and for many reasons – an accident, an illness, a mental health crisis – you may lose the ability to make informed decisions about your health care. How can you ensure that, when that happens, the care you want will be the care you receive? By completing an Advance Directive, you can arrange for the care that you want by: Appointing an agent you trust to make decisions for you when you can’t make decisions yourself, or Giving instructions about the care you want and don’t want, or Doing both – appointing an agent and giving your agent instructions about the care that you want and don’t want.