Unless you are already under guardianship or under an administrative order regarding incapacity, you will be presumed to have capacity.

Whether or not you actually had capacity when you wrote the advance directive can be contested later. To help avoid someone's contesting your capacity, you might want to attach a statement about your capacity to your advance directive. This statement could be a letter from your psychiatrist or psychologist, written around the same time that you wrote your instructions or power of attorney.

The statement is not required.

Because the letter is not required, there isn't a set form. The psychiatrist or psychologist could simply state that he or she:

• knows you,
• believes you have capacity,
• believes you understand the condition you are diagnosed with,
• believes you understand significant benefits, risks and alternatives to the various treatment options for your condition,
• believes you understand the consequences of not accepting recommended treatment, and
• believes you can make and communicate a health care decision.

There is a form in the back of this handbook that you can give to your psychiatrist or psychologist to complete.