Where to Store Your Advance Directive in Manitoba
A signed health care directive that sits in a filing cabinet — or worse, a locked safe deposit box — might as well not exist. When paramedics arrive at 2 a.m. or a hospital team is making rapid treatment decisions, nobody is driving to the bank or rifling through drawers. The entire point of documenting your wishes is making sure the right people can read them at the worst possible moment.
Because you cannot rely on a single place to make your directive available in an emergency, plan for storage and distribution yourself. Here's exactly where your directive needs to be, and why each location matters.
Your Refrigerator: The ERIK Kit
Manitoba paramedics and first responders are trained to check one specific location when they arrive at a home: the front of the refrigerator. The Emergency Response Information Kit (ERIK) is a clear plastic pocket held by a magnet, paired with a red reflective sticker on your front door that alerts crews to look for it.
Your ERIK pocket should contain a copy of your signed health care directive, your current Health and Medication form, and your organ donation card. This is the fastest path from a 911 call to informed clinical decisions. If you don't have an ERIK kit, contact your regional health authority or local fire department — they're typically distributed free.
Your Designated Proxy
Every person you've named as a health care proxy needs their own copy. If you've appointed consecutive proxies (Manitoba defaults to consecutive unless you specify joint), each one needs the document. They can't advocate for your wishes if they haven't read them.
Sit down with your proxy and walk through the directive together. Explain your reasoning behind specific treatment choices — the written instructions handle the legal obligation, but the conversation gives your proxy the confidence to interpret edge cases your directive might not explicitly cover.
Your Family Physician's Office
Your family doctor or clinic can file a copy in your medical chart. In many cases, clinics will scan it into the electronic medical record system, which means it becomes accessible within the regional health authority's network. Call the clinic to confirm they've actually filed it — don't just hand it over at an appointment and assume it landed in the right place.
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The Hospital Registry
If you're a patient within the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) or another Manitoba regional health authority, ask the clinical team to place your directive behind the designated tab in your paper file or scan it into the electronic patient database. This is particularly important if you're being admitted for surgery, entering a personal care home, or receiving ongoing treatment where incapacity is a realistic possibility.
Where Not to Store It
A safe deposit box is the worst possible location. Banks are closed evenings, weekends, and holidays — precisely when emergencies tend to happen. Your proxy may not even have access to the box, and by the time they sort out bank access, treatment decisions will already have been made without your input.
A single copy in a home office drawer is almost as bad. If you're found unconscious at home, paramedics aren't going to search your desk.
Keep a Distribution Log
Every time you provide a copy to someone, record it: who received it, which version, and the date. If you later update your directive, this log tells you exactly who needs the new version and who's holding an outdated one. A simple table works — recipient name, document type, date provided, and their contact information.
If you update or revoke your directive, retrieve and destroy all old copies. Notify every holder in writing that the previous version is no longer valid. Ask your healthcare team to mark any older Goals of Care forms in your medical file as "NO LONGER IN EFFECT" with the date and a signature.
Put the System Together
The Manitoba Advance Directive & Living Will Kit includes a Document Distribution Tracker worksheet that walks you through this entire process — recording who has copies, tracking version dates, and ensuring your updated directive reaches every location that matters. It pairs with the ERIK setup checklist so your home emergency kit stays current alongside your clinical records.
Storage isn't a one-time task. Every time your health status changes, you get a new proxy, or you update your treatment preferences, the distribution cycle needs to run again. The goal is simple: no matter where or when a medical crisis happens, someone within arm's reach can produce your signed wishes within minutes.
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