Register for HELP and DPR

Health, Education, and Life Planning (HELP) Registry and/or the Domestic Partner Registry (DPR)

HELP and DPR allow you to designate a person to make decisions for you in the event of an emergency, including decisions about visitation in hospitals or correctional facilities, emergency notification, health care and burial decisions, and education decisions for dependent children.

Benefits

The registries are especially helpful for unmarried couples, people caring for ill or elderly family members or friends, and individuals who want to designate someone other than their next-of-kin as a decision maker. This information is accessible online by medical, education, and detention staff.

Fees

There is a $50 fee for each HELP or DPR entry filed.

Eligibility

• HELP Affidavit
  • You and the person you are designating must be at least 18 years old
  • You can designate anyone: family, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance
• DPR Affidavit (applies to both applicants)
  • 18 years old
  • Unmarried and not in domestic partnerships/civil unions with anyone else
  • Not related by blood as defined by Florida law
  • Reside in a mutual residence
  • Can be same-sex or heterosexual relationship
  • Consider yourself to be a member of the immediate family
  • Jointly responsible for maintaining and supporting the registered domestic partnership

How to

1. Visit the County Clerk’s HELP/DPR page for all forms
2. Download and fill-out the HELP affidavit or the DPR affidavit
3. Notarize form in presence of two non-blood or non-spouse witnesses
4. Mail completed, notarized form to the County Clerk’s office, or bring it to any Hillsborough County Official Records Department location
5. Pay fee

What's next

Once recorded, the original affidavit and an identification card will be returned to the address you listed on the form.