Ranulph Fiennes - care home restrictions, DoLS ?

People like Joanna Lumley, Joseph Fiennes etc would not be selling snappy snaps even without an NDA, and I fancy the times and telegraph wouldn’t buy them from anyone selling them.

He may well not have wished for distant family, friends and acquaintances to see him in a state of dementia. If he is being chased from care home to care home by people trying to get close to him and take intrusive photos of him in a frail state, I am not surprised his wife has moved him and tried to protect his identity.

I was going to say this sounds like a predatory marriage, but she's been married to him for 20+ years and those normally take place once the target is already frail. It's a glaring loophole that legislation seems lacking for.

I am very surprised that care homes don't do actual ID checks on their clients?

If the wife has POA, the stepson or ex SIL can hardly get him to change his will can they? All they can do is sell stories or write books to benefit…

I've no idea what the story is but he's a rich man, possibly nearing the end of his life and it struck me that all those very concerned for him are "step" and "in law" relatives.

I'll guarantee there's more to the story than what they'd have you believe.

The multiple moves smacks of paranoia. Some of the texts from his second wife that have been released sound unhinged. I agree that some of the parties talking to papers have potentially mixed motives but not all of the people that have been concerned enough to write to the OPG etc.

I was a nurse in a nursing home until recently. We had a resident whose presence in the home we could not confirm or deny to any family member or friend. This was because she was being financially exploited by a close family member, and we were concerned about protecting her from further harm.
Unfortunately, other family members and friends refused to accept that this person should be kept away from her and would tell him where she was. She had already had to leave previous care homes because he would turn up multiple times a day and even harass staff.

I have read about cases like this on MN previously. It's an important issue and hopefully because it's happening with SRF, an intervention can happen for him AND lead to a change for all.

I have, and am using, POA for my Mum. I have some experience of it.

There should be a ln official capacity check for the Health POA and it shouldn't be on say so of the POA only. The Finance POA should also have this OR signed and witnessed instructions by the person that they want to enact the POA.

There should be someone to report concerns about POA to. I guess the Office of the Public Guardian is supposed to be this someone, but I'm not sure they do actually do anything and their backlog would suggest they are significantly understaffed.

In SRF case, they should be actively investigating - with the police if necessary - and then take over as a Guardian in the Attorney's place as significant issues have already been raised.

It is possible that SRF has been coercively controlled since he met his wife. You can't just assume that he (or anyone else) made the POA decision freely.

Most people using POA are using them in the best interests of the person. But that doesn't mean no one is abusing them.

It just needs a check but in order to do so they needed to know where hhe was, the friends and family were right to raise the issue.

I have seen POA abused. My ex-friend got POA for her very wealthy but fragile father and had him in bargain basement care homes, presumably to preserve the inheritance. Her brother lives abroad and was unaware of what was going on for ages, she brought dad back to the house for Xmas and visits and waxed lyrical about the home. A friend of the fathers managed to raise it and then he spent a couple of years trying to legally challenge it before the dad died. Absolutely ruthless and destroyed the family , I'm not sure how you can prevent that without friends and family raising the alarm.

I can't tell what's going on at all with this one, but it strikes me that both sides may think they are in the right. Friends think it's weird they can't see him, the wife may think she's doing his wishes and that only she knows him. That's why it is right to formally check up on him.

I just saw on lunchtime news he has been put into various care homes by his wife who has LPOA. And under a false name. It sounds really dodgy. And friends and family aren't allowed to visit or contact him.

You're giving a very balanced view @Fernsarethebestplants and I totally agree that his wishes should be paramount. If he has indeed expressed the wish to have a very high degree of privacy, I think if his wife had talked openly to friends and family about this and the reasons why it would be different. Moving him around residential homes under false names isn't going to inspire anything but alarm, though.

@Fernsarethebestplants ”the fact that his long-term friends can't see him at these last stages of life isn't weird to me, at least.”

no one is suggesting that it’s odd. I don’t think so anyway?

Weirdo is one way to describe him. Link to his rant blog.

There's definitely 'a rabbit away', as my Dad would say, but this bloke's an unreliable narrator. The stepson and the ex SIL are unreliable too, they have axes to grind.
I'm giving the wife, the police and the OPG the benefit of the doubt.

https://t.co/yeFu6WJG0g

In my mums case the hospital and later the care home applied for DOLS. Relatives don’t make this call, the are not the ones depriving anyone of liberty while in another setting.

It's easy to express concern though or want to see your old friend without fully understanding the day to day reality of life with advanced Parkinsons or dementia. Perhaps he doesn't want to be visited by Joanna Lumley when he's hallucinating, or incontinent or on his last legs.

I don't doubt it's right for the state to check up on his welfare and ensure the DoL is appropriate or not, but the fact that his long-term friends can't see him at these last stages of life isn't weird to me, at least.

The relationship between his wife and himself sounds very odd and possibly controlling, but then he did stay with her all that time prior to his Parkinsons and allow her to have the PoA whilst he had capacity.

It reminds me a bit of the Stephen Hawkings case where the second wife was accused (by him even, I seem to remember) of controlling/assaulting him and then everything was withdrawn and he said that was untrue and carried on living with her. He did eventually have a carer that was struck off, who had cared for him for 15 years. It was all very odd in so many ways.

You act like Kobold is some random weirdo but he’s a high profile German entrepreneur who’s been involved in several joint expeditions with Sir Ranulph. He’s another like the list of well known UK expeditioners and celebrities who have expressed concern.

It isn't just them, though. Joseph Fiennes (cousin SRF had also filmed with) had to sneak in to see him and has expressed concern, including writing to the OPG. Also, other old friends like Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Ben Fogle, Bear Grylls, Joanna Lumley and John Simpson are expressing serious disquiet and that's just the well known ones.

How likely is it that they all have an axe to grind or are all 'strange'?

There's another man involved, Michael Kobold. He's tweeting videos and photographs.
I just read his blog about it. He has a beef going back years with RF's wife. I do not think he is acting in good faith. Ditto the ex Sister-in-law.
I think the wife is protecting RF from these strange people.

The donor does not have to lack capacity for a financial LPA to be used.
The donor does need to be lacking capacity for an LPA Health to be used.

The most telling aspect of this story is that Alex (the stepson) has set up a crowdfunding page to cover the costs of going to court to remove the POA from his mother for RF. He must have very serious concerns about the situation for him to take those steps. Apparently, all his friends and family are being prevented from seeing him - and he’s been regularly moved from one care home to another under false names. I feel so sorry for him.

You’ve articulated what I was thinking over the weekend!

The only one I can think of is that he asked for them not to see him like that when he was more aware.

I have found that often the very ill person wants privacy and only a chosen few to visit. I didn't see my lovely friend for the last six weeks of her life as it was family only for this reason.

I agree it could have a sinister explanation, and I think it's right for the state to monitor this and challenge it if necessary, but it's also not inconcievable that you might not want friends and family visiting you in the the worst state of your life. I also did not post photos of my loved one in their last six months, again, that wasn't how they wanted to be remembered and they just looked very ill and not themselves.

My DF had Parkinson's and then Lewy Bodies Dementia (closely associated with Parkinson's) and he had a DOLs at the care home.

There was no way on earth we would have stopped his friends and relatives visiting, and many did. Some found it incredibly upsetting - given the speed of decline and the things he was hallucinating.

I can't think of a reason to stop friends visit, especially clearly non-looneys like John Simpson. Can you?

I agree with everyone that it does sound sinister, all the moving, hardly anyone knowing where he is, this is the reality of the slippage that can occur when the law puts so much responsibility in the hands of (usually) the spouse or children to make decisions for their family member. Not all spouses and children are benign and making 'best interests' decisions.

This case may shine a spotlight on this, and lead to more awareness of the DoL usage and how the state and care agencies can push back if they suspect anything untoward.

Care homes equally do overuse medication on elderly patients and his wife may best know his wishes.

I suspect both sides think they are right and know what he wants and he's not got capacity to decide for himself, it's good that others are getting involved but it won't be clear cut what he wants if he's got quite advanced dementia.