Power of attorney ~ health

[tobee]

So I've just got off the phone to dm. My dsis and I have power of attorney set up for dm and df earlier this year. Now dm has mentioned power of attorney "health" which was not included.

Asking here for a layman's explanation of this and any Mumsnetters' experience of this please.

Tia

If you have power of attorney for health and welfare it means you can officially make decisions about all things (except finances) when the person has lost capacity.

this can be stuff like having carers at home or going into a care home.
whether if in the care home you want to avoid hospital admissions at all costs
hospital treatment generally
decisions about medications
decisions about mobility equipment
etc

it basically allows you to legally make all the decisions that people assume the next of kin automatically are able to make. It comes as a surprise to be people in those situations that next of kin have no legal decision making rights at all unless they have LPoA for health.

Basically it gives you the authority to make decisions about a person’s care, medical treatment, living arrangements etc. It also gives you the right to access certain information and for people to disclose information with you.

Eg: your mum has Alzheimer’s and is on a certain medication but you think the side effects are worse than the benefits of her continuing to take it. She doesn’t have the mental capacity to talk to the GP about this issue. Because you have the health LPA, you can contact her GP and discuss your concerns. You could ask for her to be taken off the medication or suggest an alternative.

Without the LPA, the GP wouldn’t necessarily agree to talk to you or discuss her medication (on the basis of patient confidentiality).

There could be similar scenarios with care home staff, social workers, hospital consultants etc.

With the LPA you can also give someone the option to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment.

There are two different types of power of attorney:

1. Property and finance
2. Health and welfare.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/make-a-lasting-power-of-attorney

Maybe you have already done the first but not the second. It's pretty straightforward, if you have someone who can confirm the of sound mind part.

Download the 'other' set of forms and have at it. All the best.

The health is what could potentially make their last year's much better.
I never understand why people take the finance but not health, baffles me.

Yes as above
you probably have the finance one set up already but sounds like she’d like to give you POA for health & welfare too.

An example of where it would come into play is:
where a decision needs to be made about one of your parents staying living at home with care or moving permanently into a care home, and they have lost the mental capacity to make this choice for themselves.
if no POA in place and social services are involved then they would make ultimate decision about what’s in your parents best interests (with a legal duty to consult with other family members)
If you held POA for health then it would be up to you to make the decision (but in practice of social services strongly disagrees with you they could challenge it through court).

Really advisable to have both types of Lasting POA as mentioned by previous poster.

they are totally independent so you can nominate different attorneys.

I have kept all detail out of my POA and put detailed into “expression of wishes” documents I refer to in POA, that gives quite detailed guidance to my attorneys . For instance in my health one I state I want my attorneys (My DSs) to consult with female relatives (by SIL or niece) as they have medical background and I want them to take into account a woman’s perspective re my health. I also put a tone of stuff about how I’d want to be looked after in a nursing home- my interests, what I’d like to listen to if I could tell someone that, food I dislike or lie again if I couldn’t tell someone that. The fact I’m introvert and even if I had dementia I think sitting with other people all day in shared lounge being subjected to all that stimulation would probably be overwhelming and distressing - so asking for carers to give me plenty of time on my own with just radio, audible etc.
you can be as specific as you want in POA itself but it could be complicated if attorneys can’t actually do that without hideous expense or difficulty- the expression of wishes gets around this, by providing guidance you hope they can put 8w to effect but allow them to deviate if necessary.

as others have said in its basic mode POA for health does allow you to put instructions in around DNRs etc. agian I have amplified on circumstances in my expression of wishes to help my DSs out.

Thanks! I didn't know there were these two things, obviously didn't do my research properly!

Dm was already saying df was objecting to dm asking if he'd taken his medications. He's just been diagnosed with "mixed dementia". A few months ago he had a phone call from a doctor who said he should stop taking one of his pills. Either coz he didn't have his hearing aids in or some other reason he thought that meant he should stop taking all of them. Dm couldn't persuade him otherwise and within 2 weeks he had some neurological event and was hospitalised

Obviously power of attorney isn't going to sort these immediate issues but it looks like a general direction of travel iyswim

Op, it may be quite problematic getting a POA if parent is no longer deemed mentally competent (or whatever it’s called these days). I know people who have had to go to court and lengthy and costly legal processes to do it retrospectively. Hence why LPOA were bought into play.
you’ll need to take advice if doctors who have to countersign a LPOA to come into effect if parent has mental capacity to write one.

Ah right thanks! Something to bear in mind.

I think they probably are still but obviously I don't know what the bar is.

Basically it gives you the authority to make decisions about a person’s care with the caveat that you don’t get any more rights than the donor would get themselves - you can’t insist on a particular treatment f the doctors don’t recommend it.

”Letter of wishes” isn’t legally binding, but it is taken seriously.