Advance Directive Mistakes to Avoid in Saskatchewan

Most health care directive failures in Saskatchewan aren't caused by bad intentions or complex legal problems. They're caused by avoidable mistakes — the kind that sit undetected in a drawer until a medical crisis makes them visible. Here are the ones that actually matter and how to avoid them.

Mixing Up Directive and POA Signing Rules

This is the single most common substantive error. A health care directive signed by the maker doesn't require any witnesses. An Enduring Power of Attorney always requires witnesses — either one lawyer with a Form D certificate or two independent adults with a Form E certificate.

Families who draft both documents simultaneously often apply the wrong set of rules to the wrong document. The result: an over-witnessed directive (harmless but time-consuming) or an under-witnessed POA (invalid, and the family discovers it when a bank or care home rejects the document during a crisis).

The fix is simple: keep the two sets of rules separate. The directive is the easy one — sign it, date it, done. The POA is the one that needs witnesses.

Using Vague Treatment Language

"No extraordinary measures." "No heroic efforts." "I don't want to be a burden." These phrases feel meaningful when you write them, but they give medical teams almost nothing to work with. What counts as "extraordinary"? Is antibiotics extraordinary? Is a feeding tube?

Every vague phrase creates a judgment call that someone else has to make under pressure. The more judgment calls, the more likely your directive produces an outcome you didn't intend.

Write in specifics: "I refuse mechanical ventilation if I have an irreversible neurological condition." "I accept IV antibiotics but refuse dialysis." "I refuse CPR if I'm in end-stage cardiac failure." Give your medical team something they can follow, not something they need to interpret.

Not Telling Your Proxy They're Named

Surprisingly common. Someone drafts a thorough directive, names a proxy, signs it, puts it in a drawer — and never tells the proxy. The proxy finds out when a hospital calls them during a crisis and says "you're the named decision-maker."

Your proxy needs to know three things before they're needed: that they're named, what your wishes are, and what the role involves. Walking them through your directive before you file it is the single most important thing you can do after signing.

Storing the Directive Where No One Can Find It

A directive locked in a safety deposit box is useless during a 2 a.m. cardiac arrest. Saskatchewan offers two distribution channels specifically designed for emergency access:

1. The Yellow Sleeve — a bright yellow plastic sleeve on your refrigerator, where EMS crews are trained to check during a home call
2. MySaskHealthRecord — digital upload with eHR Viewer sharing, accessible to hospital teams across the province

If you haven't set up both, your directive exists but may not be accessible when it matters. And if you've uploaded to MySaskHealthRecord but haven't enabled the eHR Viewer sharing setting, the document sits in your personal portal where no medical professional can see it.

Failing to Update After Divorce

Under Saskatchewan law, a proxy appointment is automatically revoked when you divorce the person named as proxy — unless the directive explicitly states the appointment continues regardless of marital status. But the physical and digital copies of your directive don't automatically update.

If you divorce your spouse and they're named as proxy in your directive, the appointment is legally void. But if no one challenges the old document during an emergency, a hospital might still defer to the ex-spouse listed on the directive. Worse, if you haven't named an alternate proxy, there's no one clearly designated to step in.

Update your directive after divorce. Execute a new one with a revocation clause, destroy old copies, replace the MySaskHealthRecord upload, and swap the document in your Yellow Sleeve.

Not Dating the Directive

A signed but undated directive creates problems when you have multiple versions. If medical teams find two directives with conflicting instructions and neither is dated, they can't determine which reflects your current wishes. The most recent directive controls, but without dates, "most recent" can't be established.

Date it. Every time you sign a new version, date it.

Assuming the Directive Covers Financial Decisions

Your health care directive handles medical decisions only. It doesn't give your proxy authority over your bank accounts, property, bills, or investments. That's what an Enduring Power of Attorney is for — and it's a completely separate document with different legal requirements.

Families who assume the directive covers everything often discover the gap when a parent loses capacity and no one can access their bank accounts to pay the mortgage or the care home fees. The directive and the POA serve different functions, and you need both.

Appointing an Invalid Witness for Directed Signing

If someone signs on behalf of the maker (because the maker physically can't sign), one independent witness is required. That witness cannot be the proxy or the proxy's spouse. Families often ask the most convenient person in the room to witness — and that person turns out to be the proxy's partner.

This makes the witnessing invalid. The fix: if you need a directed signing, bring in an independent witness who has no relationship to the proxy.

The Prevention

Most of these mistakes are preventable with a structured checklist. The Saskatchewan Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a signing compliance checklist, witness eligibility flowchart, and a distribution tracker to make sure your directive is valid, accessible, and up to date.

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