DM wants a riser-chair costing £4.5k! Advice v welcome

@Valleyofthedollymix I would HIGHLY recommend this company if you want a riser recliner

https://stuartmobility.co.uk/riser-recliners/

I recently bought one from them for an elderly relative. It's a British family owned company. They come to your home with an actual chair to test and measure you and fit you properly. You do need to be measured so it fits properly and avoids pressure sores etc.

MASSIVE choice of fabrics and much cheaper than £4k

It was one of those experiences that restores your faith in customer service.

https://www.hslchairs.com/chairs/riser-recliners

I found this.

OP says she has PoA in place and her mother has lost capacity to use her bank card or deal with the bank. To get authorised to deal with her mother’s accounts banks will have required her to send them the PoA documents. So I assume the former in this case.

I would be speaking to a lawyer about getting power of attorney for finance. It doesn’t sound like she has full capcity to be making these decisions. Also sounds like the carer has too much influence and I’d be worried about financial abuse.

You may not have capacity to tun your own accounts, but do have capacity to say where you should live, or what clothes you want to buy.

And that’s what the mental health act recommends because assessment of capacity is outside the scope of the attorney. The authority conferred by the LPA depends on what is specified by the donor at the time the LPA is drawn up. If it’s for use as soon as it’s registered then the attorney assist with decision making whenever necessary but if it’s only to be used after the donor has lost the capacity to make their own decisions it’s more difficult, because the legal definition of capacity is complicated and the law states that attorneys are still required to ensure that the donor is involved in the process within the limits of their understanding.

Inability to run your own bank accounts, deal with your bank, manage funds, does suggest a lack of capacity and if you are at all concerned you can have the person formally assessed by a relevant professional. LPA for financial affairs is to give the person authority to make, or to help the donor make, decisions about money, deal with bank accounts etc etc.

I’ve noticed similar with my mum. She has advanced dementia which has affected the appetite controlling part of her brain, so she no longer gets hunger signals. Generally, if she wasn’t presented with food, she simply wouldn’t eat. The only food she actively seeks is sweet and she has gone from a lifetime of not taking sugar in her tea/coffee, to wanting a couple of spoonfuls. I associated it with the need for energy rather than actually wanting to eat and your explanation makes sense.

Jumping in here to say that DMIL had both dementia and limited mobility with experience of falls. DH asked the SW (or OT?) whether a riser chair would be beneficial for her. They said no, because in her case all that would happen is that it would tip her onto the floor faster, LOL. the lesson here is to consult an expert before parting with any cash.
Good luck sorting it all out. Been there, and it's no walk in the park.

Is her consultant aware of the behaviour with money and food? It’s potentially linked to the dementia

What you said was “moderate dementia is a far cry from lost capacity” - which is not true. Although we can agree that everyone is different (they may have different types of dementia for a start).

A legal assessment of capacity is only relevant when a person is contemplating something like a legal contract or medical procedure etc.

Otherwise the people around a person including family, carers, medics are making assessments of that person’s capacity for different things on a daily basis.

She has also eschewed a lifetime of obsessive dieting (and judging others' weight) in favour of cramming as much sugar as she can get. Boxes of biscuits, large slabs of chocolate, gu puddings... she eats in this bingey, grabby way that feels like the shackles coming off after a lifetime of denial.

Apologies if this topic was raised ages ago (I can’t read through the entire thread) but the sugar consumption could be due to dementia.

I read recently that people with dementia often crave sugar, and it’s linked with the brain working so hard to function properly that it craves sugar for a hit of energy.

I also suspect your DM gifts the carer some of the cashmere scarves and fripperies she buys.

No it doesn’t, The mental health act which underpins the regulations around lasting power of attorney clearly states that determination of capacity is a legal issue and outside the scope of an attorney, so they cannot overrule what they consider to be an unwise decision on the part of the donor, on the assumption that the person doesn’t have the capacity to make it.

Inability to run your own bank account or manage your own bank cards does though.

One has to distinguish between unwise decisions and ones that are made from mental impairment. Eg: my father’s desire to go for a walk in long johns and slippers.

Make what call ? Every case is different. I wouldn’t disagree with anything you’ve said but you seem to be picking up on comments made to other posters. In this case I was replying to a poster who stated that DM had lost capacity. I was pointing out that moderate dementia doesn’t necessarily mean loss of capacity, and that legally capacity, or lack of it, can only be assessed by someone suitably qualified to make that determination. Where capacity is limited, the attorney has an obligation to make every effort to involve the person in the decision making process as far as their understanding allows.

Her home would be sold to fund private care

Quite!

Once you start this, don't be surprised if the carer resigns.
I think you might find she's been taking advantage and if that's the case, she'll be spooked by this sudden change.

Nope - not an issue. Had she needed to go into a care home (instead of having carers at home), her property would have been sold to pay for such care. I

Actually "basic safeguarding" is crystal clear that unwise decisions do not imply lack of capacity nor does a particular medical condition. I suggest you bone up on your safeguarding training (if any) again.

There will be strict eligibility criteria and it's imo unlikely that someone who is physically able to rise from a regular chair would get one. Also as others have said dementia in the long term is a contraindication for safety reasons.,

You can’t make that call. Moderate dementia involves quite a significant degree of impairment. A person will have capacity to make some decisions and not others. They can have confusion about where they are, what day it is, appropriate clothing, they can wander off, have delusions, delirium, compulsive behaviour.

OP’s DM for example cannot run her own bank accounts or use the internet or mobile, but she can have opinions about where she wants to live - which OP is respecting.

Cashmere jumpers wouldn’t last 24hours if she decides to move into a carehome.

If her mum still has the capacity to contribute to decisions about her care, then OP can’t disregard her wishes or act independently of them. So if it’s likely that DM doesn’t want to change carers then OP needs to approach things with care. Having power of attorney doesn’t mean you can do as you like with no recourse to what the person wants.

I was replying to another poster about their own situation - not relevant to OP.