The Alberta personal directive form, officially numbered OPG5521, is the document you use to name someone to make personal, non-financial decisions for you if you ever lose the mental capacity to make them yourself. You can download it free from the Government of Alberta’s forms portal or pick up a copy at any regional Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT).1Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT). OPGT Forms Completing it correctly takes three things: a clear choice of agent, written instructions about the decisions you care about, and a signature made in front of a qualified witness.
Who Can Make One
Any Alberta resident who is at least 18 and has the capacity to understand what the directive means can make one.2Government of Alberta. Understanding Personal Directives Capacity here means you can understand the information relevant to a personal decision and appreciate the foreseeable consequences. Anyone 18 or older is presumed to meet that standard unless there is evidence otherwise.
The form itself is free. You can fill it out digitally through the portal or print a blank copy and complete it by hand. No lawyer is required, though you can involve one if your situation is complex.3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive
What You Can Put In It
A personal directive covers non-financial personal matters only. The kinds of instructions you can include are broad:3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive
- Healthcare, including medical treatments you want or refuse, preferences about life support, organ donation, and clinical trials.
- Where you want to live and who you want to live with.
- Who should care for your minor children.
- Daily life matters such as recreation, employment, education, social activities, diet, and religious practice.
- Other personal and legal decisions that are not about money.
Your instructions can be specific (“I do not want to be placed on a ventilator for more than 14 days”) or general, leaving your agent to decide in the moment based on your values. Many people combine both: firm rules on a few core issues and broader guidance for everything else.
Naming Your Agent
The central choice on the form is your agent, the person who steps in once a capacity assessment confirms you cannot decide for yourself. Your agent must be an adult. Pick someone who knows your values and is willing to take on the role, and talk to them before you sign. An agent caught off guard is less likely to carry out your wishes well.
You can name more than one agent and divide authority by subject, so one person handles healthcare while another handles housing, for example.3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive You can also name alternates who take over if your primary agent cannot or will not act. Naming at least one alternate is sensible, since people move, get sick, or change their minds over the years.
Write each agent’s full legal name and current contact information carefully. Hospital staff need to reach your agent quickly in an emergency, and a wrong phone number can hold things up when timing matters.
Signing and Witnessing
For the directive to be legally valid, you and one witness both sign it. You must sign in the witness’s physical presence; signing over video call or mailing the form back and forth does not count. The witness confirms you signed voluntarily and appeared to understand what you were doing.
These people cannot act as your witness:3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive
- Anyone under 18.
- Your spouse or adult interdependent partner.
- Your named agent.
- Your agent’s spouse or adult interdependent partner.
A friend, neighbour, coworker, or adult relative who is not your spouse and not named as your agent works fine. The directive does not need to be notarized.3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive
When the Directive Takes Effect
Signing does not hand control to your agent right away. The directive only kicks in after a formal capacity assessment finds you can no longer make your own personal decisions, and two people must conduct and agree on that assessment.4Alberta.ca. About Capacity Assessment
The form gives you the option to name a specific person, such as a family member, friend, or your agent, to help determine your capacity. If you name someone, that person works with a physician or psychologist to complete the assessment.5Office of the Public Guardian. Guide to Capacity Assessment under the Personal Directives Act If you do not name anyone, two service providers do it together: one must be a physician or psychologist, and the second can be a physician, psychologist, nurse, social worker, or care-facility manager.4Alberta.ca. About Capacity Assessment The assessors then complete a Declaration of Incapacity, and only after that is signed does your agent gain legal authority.
Registering the Form
Registering your signed directive with the Alberta Personal Directive Registry is optional and free.3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive The directive is legally valid either way, but registration lets physicians across Alberta look up whether you have one and how to reach your agent. That matters most if you arrive at a hospital unconscious or unable to communicate.
You can register online at pdr.alberta.ca or mail a copy to the OPGT in Edmonton. The registry records only that the directive exists and who your agent is; it does not store the full text of your instructions.
Storing the Original
Keep the signed original somewhere safe but reachable, and make sure your agent knows where it is. A locked fireproof box at home works; a safety deposit box your agent cannot open on a weekend does not. Give copies to your agent, your alternate, and your primary healthcare provider. A wallet card noting that a directive exists and where to find it is a useful backup during hospital admissions.
What the Form Does Not Cover
A personal directive gives your agent no authority over money, bank accounts, investments, or property. For financial decisions, you need a separate Enduring Power of Attorney.3Alberta.ca. Personal Directive
You also cannot use a personal directive to request medical assistance in dying, and your agent cannot request MAID on your behalf. This is a federal-law limit that applies across Canada; provincial advance directives do not cover MAID.6Alberta Health Services. Medical Assistance in Dying and Other End-of-Life Options A MAID request has to come from you while you still have capacity, through the separate federal process.
Changing or Cancelling It Later
You can revoke or amend a personal directive at any time, as long as you still have the mental capacity to do so. A new marriage, a falling-out with your agent, or shifting healthcare preferences are all reasons to update it. The simplest method is to make an entirely new personal directive, witnessed fresh, and destroy the old one. Then send the updated version to your agent, your healthcare providers, and the registry if you registered.
To revoke without replacing, the revocation must meet the same formal requirements as the original: written and witnessed. Destroying the physical original also counts as revocation under the Act, but relying on destruction alone can cause confusion when copies are still in circulation. A written, witnessed revocation combined with notice to everyone holding a copy is the cleanest approach.