Mental Capacity Assessment

[Lovinglifeand]

I wonder if anyone could offer some advice here. My father died recently leaving my 85year old mother as the executer of his will. Unfortunately she has dementia and we are on a very long waiting list for the memory clinic to have her diagnosed. She is unable to cope at home and is now living in a dementia home.
However, we cannot access my father's bank accounts or sell the house to pay for her care until we can get a mental capacity assessment to show she isn't able to make decisions.
Her G.P refuses to do it saying a solicitor should do it and the local solicitors refuse to do it saying that the G.P should do it. ARGH....
Has anyone else been in this position before and how did they resolve it?

Have you contacted the Alzheimer's Society? They are extremely helpful and may have guidance for you.

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-us/contact-us

Do you have power of attorney?
It makes these things SO MUCH easier. If you haven’t OP, it’s shit. In my experience when it comes to dementia, NOBODY wants to take responsibility. Our local memory clinic were worse than useless.

Anyone reading this - sort out power of attorney not only for your parents but also for yourselves. It can save your relatives/attoneys enormous stress if it’s all in place, should anything happen.

Who is paying for the care home?

If it's social services, ask them and they can do the MCA and it can go to the court of protection for you to apply for deputyship (if no POA).

I wonder whether an IMCA could help?

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/advocacy/imcas/#:~:text=An%20Independent%20Mental%20Capacity%20Advocate,'lacking%20capacity'%20means.)

You need to apply to court of protection

I do have Power of Attorney for my mother but all of her money was in my father's name which he has left to her so we cannot access it to pay for the home until we get a Mental Capacity assessment.
She will be paying for the home out of the sale of her house and savings. Until the assessment is done, I will be paying.
Thank you @ShrubRose I have just phoned the Alzheimer's society and they are sending some advice.
Thank you everyone for your advice, very much appreciated

I’m puzzled. I’ve never had to get a capacity assessment to handle my father’s money. Is that because he ticked the box saying that the POA could come into effect while he still had capacity?

No capacity assessment to be able to use the health one either

The financial poa can be used once its registered if that's what the donor ticked, health and welfare is only once capacity is lost. The carehome manager, social worker or dementia nurse should all be trained to carry out a capacity assessment.

We are in a similar situation and social services have done the capacity assessment and confirmed to us (in writing via email) that my mother does not have capacity to make financial decisions and it’s appropriate for us to arrange the sale of her house to pay care home fees. We also told them we had no access to any money to pay beyond her current bank account and absolutely refused to pay it from our money (both because we can’t afford it and because there’s been an awful lot of issues with my mum behaving appallingly to us). I wanted it in writing having had social services previously investigate whether or not I was financially abusing my mother after I arranged a delivery of Tena ladies via Amazon at her request to her flat 200 miles away from where I was living - she told them she had no idea why I’d done it and what they were! Not entirely sure how Tena Ladies 200 miles away would have benefited me but never mind!

anyway - good luck. I’ve found this such a stressful and difficult process so do look after yourself too.

The quickest route would be via an Independent Social Worker - pay them for completing the MCA and providing advice.
mum surprised the solicitor won’t do it for you.
The GP would only likely do MCAs relating to medical treatment. You’d be very low priority for Adult Social Care as mum is safe, so the MCA isn’t needed for welfare reasons.

Any professional could do a mental capacity assessment that may be involved with her.
GP, social worker, district nurse.
It's just assessing if she has capacity to make that specific decision.

My parent has Alzhiemer's and had the capacity assessment done by a private assessor which the solicitor recommended. Is that what your GP means?

Usually the psychiatrist linked to the memory clinic would do the assessment. Could you ring the memory clinic and ask if a private assessor could be recommended?

Hope you get things sorted out

Yes, if you have to go through the deputyship process it can take a long time and can be a hassle