What Are Advance Directives ?
As we live our lives and advance in age, sadly, there is always the possibility that we may experience illness, a medical emergency or develop a health condition which alters our overall health status and may limit the ability to care for ourselves.
In Illinois, there are a number of advance directives which allow you to make decisions about your future care. These directives are recognized as legal documents in the state of Illinois and serve to safeguard your autonomy in making decisions about your healthcare wishes (Guillen et al., 2025).
Illinois Advance Directives are documents that communicate your specific healthcare wishes and medical care directives to family members, loved ones, physicians, healthcare providers and healthcare entities where you receive medical care (Advance Directives, 2026).
Completing advance directives allows you to establish a guide for possible future healthcare needs (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d).
Completing your advance directives for healthcare in advance may be particularly important if you encounter a sudden medical emergency, or develop a medical condition that impairs your ability to communicate your specific healthcare directives (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d).
The four different Illinois healthcare advance directives introduced on this website serve as proactive care planning for your future (Miller & Reitz, 2026).
Take a few minutes of time to consider and learn about the four advance directives reviewed and discussed here. The decisions you make today, may help to ensure that your healthcare wishes are followed in the future.
Four Examples of Advance Directives
Living Will
A Living Will is a legal document which allows you to write out any healthcare wishes you want followed in the event you can not speak for yourself (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d).
Although this advance directive is not an order, it servers as a guide to communicate what it is you want with your healthcare (Illinois Department on Aging, n.d).
Power of Attorney for Health Care (POA-HC)
The Power of Attorney for Health Care is a legally documented directive in Illinois (Advanced Directives, 2026).
This document allows you to designate someone to make medical decisions in the event you are incapacitated and unable to make decisions yourself (Advanced Directives, 2026).
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)
The D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate) is a legal document which is a physicians order that your medical care providers must follow (Advanced Directives, 2026).
This advance directive communicates your wishes about emergency resuscitative measures such as C.P.R. (Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation), Mechanical airway ventilator support, or electric shock treatment (Cardioversion) (Breyre et al., 2025).
This legal document can either allow or refuse some emergency medical care interventions in accordance of your specific wishes (Breyre et al., 2025).
Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)
Per House et al. (2026), the POLST is not a replacement for a D.N.R.. The POLST comprises a set of different physician orders which includes directives that follow your decisions regarding DNR preferences. Additionally, the POLST directive expands beyond cardiopulmonary resuscitative interventions and helps to specify your wishes regarding additional healthcare options.
The POLST directive can provide physician orders you have agreed upon regarding additional healthcare directives such as the acceptance or refusal of IV fluid therapy, antibiotic therapy, artificial means of nutrition, or blood transfusion therapy that may be required with a life-threatening illness or medical crisis.
This advance directive form is only valid upon agreement by you or your healthcare decision maker (if you are incapacitated) and your physician.
(House et al., 2026)
Website Exclusion:
The state of Illinois does have an additional directive known as the: (Declaration for Mental Health Treatment) and sometimes referred to as (Psychiatric Advance Directive). This Illinois Mental Health Advance Directives will not be covered on this website at this time, please check back at a later date for updates.
For more information on all current Illinois advance directives available please feel free to click on the green box for the official Illinois Department of Public Health website link below.