Hi, could someone please advise whether it is necessary to have a professional opinion and a certificate confirming someone lacks mental capacity before an attorney for Health & Welfare can start to use their attorneyship. The person clearly had capacity when giving power of attorney so would you not have to prove the situation has changed before going making decisions on behalf of the donor. The H&W LPA was registered at the time of signing it. Thank you.
Help regarding LPA Health & Welfare
- Thread starter care2share
- Start date
It's a very grey area I've always thought, if you have an LPA and it's registered that doesn't mean you get to use it straight away, I could do an LPA tomorrow but I don't lack capacity yet, what's to stop someone registering it and taking over my life?
If |I went into a solicitors and they believed I had capacity I could cancel the LPA, make a new will or whatever I liked, provided the solicitor still believed I still had capacity at the time.
Doctors deal with their patient and if you wave an LPA in a doctor's face they can get quite alienated, better to let the see the situation and work with them than get in between the doctor patient relationship.
If the doctor has a letter from the memory clinic saying the person has AZ and lacks capacity then it gets easier, until the doctor has seen the person lacks capacity they seem to want to deal with them first, which is fair enough.
K
If |I went into a solicitors and they believed I had capacity I could cancel the LPA, make a new will or whatever I liked, provided the solicitor still believed I still had capacity at the time.
Doctors deal with their patient and if you wave an LPA in a doctor's face they can get quite alienated, better to let the see the situation and work with them than get in between the doctor patient relationship.
If the doctor has a letter from the memory clinic saying the person has AZ and lacks capacity then it gets easier, until the doctor has seen the person lacks capacity they seem to want to deal with them first, which is fair enough.
K
That is all so true Kevinl. I guess when health professionals see that the person is unable to look after themselves anymore and communication just goes round in circles there is no more doubting left to do and time has come to start making the decisions for the donor. All backed up by a diagnosis of fairly advanced AZ despite being quite able to fool someone upon first meeting them. That's interesting reedysue. Thanks very much to you both.
