Vermont Advance Directive Form: How to Complete and Register It

Where to Get the Form

The official Vermont health care advance directive form is published by the Vermont Ethics Network (VEN) and available as a free download from vtethicsnetwork.org. It's the standard form recognized across all Vermont hospitals, clinics, and care facilities under 18 V.S.A. Chapter 231.

Disability Rights Vermont also publishes a simplified, plain-language version designed specifically for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. If your young adult struggles with dense legal language, start with that version — it covers the same statutory authority in more accessible terms.

Don't use generic advance directive forms from national template sites like LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer. Vermont's advance directive statute has specific requirements around witness qualifications and agent authority that out-of-state templates miss.

What the Advance Directive Actually Covers

A Vermont advance directive does two things. First, it names a health care agent — the person authorized to make medical decisions if the individual loses the capacity to make them independently. Second, it documents the individual's own preferences for treatment, including end-of-life care, psychiatric treatment preferences, and anatomical gifts.

For families of young adults with disabilities, the health care agent appointment is the critical piece. When your child turns 18, HIPAA and Vermont law transfer all medical decision-making authority to them. Without an advance directive, you cannot legally consent to surgery, discuss treatment plans with their doctor, or access their medical records — even if you've been managing their care for 18 years.

The capacity threshold for signing an advance directive is lower than many families expect. Under 18 V.S.A. § 9701, the individual only needs to understand the basic concept of appointing someone to make medical decisions and be able to identify who they want that person to be. They don't need to understand every medical scenario the document covers.

How to Complete It

The form has four main sections.

Section 1: Health care agent. Name your primary agent and at least one alternate. Include full legal names, addresses, and phone numbers. The agent cannot be the individual's treating physician or an employee of their residential facility unless they're also a family member.

Section 2: Treatment preferences. This is where the individual documents their wishes about life-sustaining treatment, artificial nutrition and hydration, and organ donation. For young adults with disabilities who are not facing terminal illness, focus on the agent authority sections and leave specific end-of-life preferences general. The point is ensuring someone can make medical decisions, not predicting every scenario.

Section 3: Psychiatric treatment preferences. Vermont's form includes a specific section for mental health treatment preferences — medications the individual wants or refuses, preferred treatment facilities, and crisis intervention instructions. This section matters for young adults with co-occurring psychiatric conditions.

Section 4: Signatures. The individual signs. Two witnesses sign — neither can be the named health care agent, and at least one must not be the individual's spouse, heir, or health care provider. Notarization is not required by statute, but some institutions request it.

Registering With VADR

The Vermont Advance Directive Registry (VADR) is a free, voluntary electronic registry maintained by the Vermont Department of Health. After completing the form, submit a copy to VADR so that any hospital in the state can pull it up electronically in an emergency.

Registration is straightforward: mail or fax the completed form to VADR at the address printed on the registry submission page, or upload it through the state's online portal. You'll receive a confirmation with a registry number. Give the registry number to your child's primary care provider, any specialists, and each named agent.

Registering isn't mandatory — the advance directive is legally valid as soon as it's signed and witnessed. But registration solves the practical problem of having the document available when it's needed most. Emergency departments check VADR. Having the directive on file there means a 2 AM ambulance crew can verify your status as health care agent before they have to make treatment decisions.

How It Interacts With Guardianship

Here's the detail most families miss: under Vermont law, an advance directive holds exclusive authority over healthcare decisions. If your young adult has both an advance directive naming a health care agent and a court-appointed guardian, the advance directive agent controls medical decisions unless a judge explicitly overrides that arrangement.

This means a proactive advance directive — signed while the young adult has capacity — can eliminate the need for a guardianship petition on the medical side entirely. Even families who pursue limited guardianship for financial supervision often find that an advance directive handles the healthcare piece without court involvement.

A guardian must also get prior written approval from the Probate Division before consenting to a DNR order or withholding life-sustaining treatment, unless acting under a valid advance directive. The advance directive bypasses that court step because the individual made those choices themselves while they had capacity.

When an Advance Directive Isn't Enough

An advance directive only covers healthcare. It doesn't give your agent authority over finances, education, housing, or daily living decisions. If your young adult needs support in those areas too, you'll need additional documents — a durable financial power of attorney for banking and property, an educational power of attorney for IEP decisions, and potentially a supported decision making agreement for daily choices.

The Vermont Adult Guardianship & Alternatives Guide walks through how to layer these documents together based on your child's specific capabilities, with a decision worksheet that maps each functional area to the right legal instrument.

If your young adult cannot understand the concept of appointing an agent — cannot identify who they want making medical decisions — then they lack the capacity to sign an advance directive. In that case, a limited or full guardianship petition through Vermont Probate Court is the pathway to medical decision-making authority.

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