Scotland - care home. Who has the legal 'say'

[flourpot]

Looking for a bit of advice as I'm in a situation where I have POA for a relative and I disagree with the discharge team at hospital.

Relative is 93, has no capacity, no idea what's going on and lives upstairs flat. I think it would be dangerous to send her home.

Brief phone call today indicated the team think home with carers is acceptable

I did not realise that when the decision needed to be made about a care home it might not be my decision.

I'm struggling to find out whether my POA means I can disagree with the team at the hospital or if I have to accept their choice.

Any ideas?

@KittenKins

Thank you, you are right about them reacting to incidents rather than preventing them. I had no idea until now that this was the case.

Minor update

I spoke to the ward nurse today who is involved in various meetings and she said she completely agrees with me and that she will vote things down and make sure concerns are heard but that also nothing will happen without them talking to me despite what I was led to believe. She also said I can disagree with a discharge to home and that I should be strong and push as far as I can with it.

That's good news

I agree that the scaremongering talk about "guardianship" is moot a red herring, as the whole point of organising a POA is to avoid having to go through expensive guardianship proceedings.

That's why, even though our POAs have not yet been registered at the OPG, we're not concerned as, should they be needed, they would be expedited by the OPG.

You've had them sorted and activated, so that's one less thing going for you to worry about. And it means you do have the right to make welfare decisions on your relative's behalf.

Just re-reading your posts, you need to stop doubting yourself and worrying whether or not you are "allowed" to advocate for her. You need to be crystal clear with the hospital team that you have Welfare PoA (you should have been sent it by the OPG: I know I had a letter from the OPG with my Dad's although I never had to use it) and that you therefore expect to be present at any meeting where her future care is discussed.

I don't mind at all if you choose to ignore my comments about guardianship and deprivation of liberty

But, please understand I'm only trying to be helpful (and i do work in this area)

If you have time / inclination, you might wish to look at Suoreme Court decision in "Cheshire West case". And ECHR article 5. And the MWC guidance I referred to. In short, people who are "under continuous supervision and control" and "not free to leave" (basically, many care home residents) are deemed to be deprived of their liberty, and many people aren't aware that this needs to be lawfully authorised

Anyway, I hope you get this sorted

@NeedToChangeName

I don't think any of this is relevant to my circumstances.

Thank you so much, I think you are right and I do need to stop doubting myself. I can see part of this is just a confidence issue. I'm not too sure of the process/system so that's made me a bit apprehensive.

That sounds encouraging

I'm going to bow out now. I wish you well and hope you get this sorted

Fabulous news.

I really firmly believe that people have just rushed in and given your concerns they will re stock. You see this a lot and although it's not the best people do 9/10 back track and re evaluate.

Please feel free to dm if you wish. Much like you not wanting to say too much, neither do I.

Lots of things people have said are so different in different areas. Ie Edinburgh can take an age for care to be put in place, Glasgow it can be arranged within 24 hours.

Glad to hear you've got the POA all sorted and a medical professional on your side.

Be confident! You know your relative better than they do and it's your duty as attorney to act in their best interest. I write everything down (good excuse for a nice new notebook) in front of them and read it back to them, "helpfully summarise" conversations after they happen in emails to SW ("I'll just put that in an email"). I think it focuses their mind to know that there is an audit trail to show the reasons why I disagree with them. In those emails I've set out specific evidence of risks to relative's safety - bulletpoints are good - and when they happened eg accidents and hospital admissions, where safety risks can be found and that they can't be overlooked or fixed.

I am quite pushy and I don't care if they think I'm a pain in the neck! It's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil and my relative deserves to be cared for properly.