How to Make a Personal Directive in Nova Scotia

Making a Personal Directive in Nova Scotia does not require a lawyer, a notary, or any government filing. The document is free to create, legally binding from the moment you sign it, and entirely in your control. Despite that, most Nova Scotians either do not have one or have one that contains errors serious enough to render it useless in an emergency.

The process involves five steps. None of them is complicated, but each has specific rules that must be followed exactly.

Step 1: Confirm Your Eligibility

You must be at least 19 years old (the age of majority in Nova Scotia) or a minor who is married. You must have the mental capacity to understand the decisions you are recording at the time you sign the document. If there is any doubt about your capacity, a formal assessment can be arranged through a physician or registered psychologist.

Step 2: Choose Your Delegate

Your delegate is the person who will make healthcare and personal care decisions on your behalf when you can no longer make them yourself. Nova Scotia uses the term "delegate" rather than "healthcare proxy" or "agent."

Your delegate must be 19 or older (or a minor spouse). You can name one primary delegate and one or more alternate delegates who step in if the primary is unable or unwilling to act. You cannot appoint joint delegates — two people sharing simultaneous decision-making authority on the same matter. If you do, that section of your directive is invalid.

Paid healthcare providers (your doctor, a home care worker, a nursing home attendant) generally cannot serve as your delegate unless they are also your spouse or close relative, or you specifically authorize a paid provider in your directive.

Step 3: Write Your Instructions

Nova Scotia provides two form options:

The Long Form allows you to name your delegate and record detailed treatment preferences — specifying what medical interventions you do or do not want under various circumstances. This is the stronger option because it gives clinicians direct instructions to follow, reducing the pressure on your delegate to guess.

The Short Form only names a delegate. It appoints someone to make decisions for you but does not record any treatment preferences. Your delegate must then make decisions based on what they believe you would have wanted.

The Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia also offers a free interactive application that generates the document for you. However, the final output must be printed, physically signed, and witnessed — there is no option for digital-only execution under current legislation.

When writing treatment instructions, avoid vague language. "No extraordinary measures" is the most common phrase in invalidated directives because clinical teams have no consensus on what it means. Instead, address specific scenarios: Do you want CPR? Mechanical ventilation? Artificial nutrition and hydration? Dialysis? Antibiotics for secondary infections if you have a terminal condition? The more specific you are, the more useful your directive becomes.

Step 4: Sign and Witness

Print the final document. Sign and date the end of the document in the presence of at least one independent witness who is 19 or older. Your witness cannot be your named delegate, the delegate's spouse, anyone who signs the document on your behalf if you are physically unable to sign, or that person's spouse.

The witness must sign, date, and print their full name, address, phone number, and email address. Both you and the witness should initial the bottom corner of every page to verify that no pages were altered after execution.

No notarization is required. No filing with a government office is required. The document takes effect immediately upon proper execution.

Step 5: Store and Distribute

Nova Scotia has no central registry for Personal Directives, so your document will only work if the right people can find it when they need it.

The Green Sleeve. Place the original signed document inside a Green Sleeve — a green plastic folder that Nova Scotia paramedics are trained to look for on top of or on the front of the refrigerator. Your Green Sleeve should also contain your Goals of Care form (completed with your physician) and, if applicable, an Expected Death at Home form.

Give copies. Provide copies to your named delegate, alternate delegates, your family doctor, and close family members. If you enter a hospital or long-term care facility, ask that a copy be placed in your medical chart.

Digital backup. Store a high-resolution scan in a secure cloud folder and share the access link with your delegate.

Wallet card. Carry a printed card stating that you have a Personal Directive, naming your primary delegate and their phone number, and noting that your documents are in a Green Sleeve on your refrigerator.

The Nova Scotia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks you through every step with Nova Scotia-specific checklists, guided drafting prompts for treatment scenarios, and a document distribution tracker to make sure your directive reaches everyone who needs it.

See more Nova Scotia guides →