IME, your last para is where things can get tricky as ‘capacity’ in later years, especially if there is any suggestion of Alzheimer’s/or diminished mental acuity - and also throws doubt on/fetters any Will updates.
A friend who has got a financial PoA for her very elderly mum had to go through a lot of hoops to get OLB (via Bx) set up for her direct use. The daughter hasn’t got a health PoA (an oversight) given her mum’s condition and the daughter wrote a complaint to the local NHS Trust about the standard of care given to her mum during a brief stay (she kept assiduous notes of events) and the Trust replied they would need the patient’s authority to respond!
My own position on this is that PoAs should be enacted with the least conditions possible. I have financial & health PoAs re an elderly aunt but having surveyed the conditions (doctor certifications/have to get the originals from her sols/likely have to spend time registering with her bank et al - which I know won’t be quick/easy), I’ve told her these things may as well not be in place if there is a sudden event. I fear the day which, of course, may come at an unpredictable time, when I have to go through the process of activating these PoAs.
I have been involved in many capacity assessments for PoA and various other reasons (included contested Wills). I totally agree it can be tricky, but it is also important to respect the principles of autonomy at every age and avoid assumptions particularly as the patient ages. It may well upset families who assume they have rights over an elderly parent (or indeed a child) and do not accept that the individual is still entitled not only to privacy but also to make ‘unwise’ decisions. I have upset a number of families by asking how they would feel if I shared all their medical information with their parent, and took decisions about them without telling them after discussion with that parent only! It makes the point.
It is an interesting topic but above all the best advice is to explore LPA for ourselves as well as our parents early, and to communicate our wishes to relatives and our doctors well in advance.
There are some threads that simply shine, with people giving freely and copiously of their knowledge and experience to help someone else. This is one, and although the trigger was a a sad event, the thread itself is heartwarming - and a useful resource for anyone else in a similar position.
My parents wanted me involved in discussions with all the services they used, and I fought very hard to keep mum and dad in their own home as that was their wish and they had capacity.
Despite me knowing their quality of life would probably have been better in nursing care towards the end it was not what they wanted.
They were probably not the easiest clients for the care services provided by the local authority, but there were repeated suggestions they should consider nursing home care from various agencies and I had to continually remind certain individuals that my parents had capacity, and though their quality of life was not great subjectively to others it was what they personally wanted.
Hi
It transpired at a family gathering my Dad had made his two grandsons the executors of his will;news to my mum and the rest of us. My Dad was a man of very few words.
He once told my mum he was going into town to get some bananas off the market. He came back having purchased a bunch and a “new” car!!
So I passed all the information, that all of you kindly sent to me,onto my nephew who had volunteered to sort out the finances.
It is now all sorted and my mum has got my dads state pension, less a bit, and housing benefit and a reduction in council tax.
All we have left to do is takle my Mum`s private landlord who is not looking after the outside of the house and the windows are starting to rot and elsewhere damp is getting in and the wall paper is peeling, of course my mum does not want to rock the boat, she has been in it for 66 years. I guess he is banking on my mum not being around for much longer and then he can sell the house for a good profit as it is in the way of a development he would like to do.
Kind regards
Roger.