Health POA

[Katie_Fr]

My FIL was placed into the care home recently, because my MIL couldn’t cope any more and it was dangerous to keep him at home.

It’s only 1 week that my FIL spent there, but there are difficulties with settling in. He says he wants to leave and be at home with my MIL.

The care home asked us today for financial and health LPA. We have financial LPA, but we don’t have health LPA.

Is it an obligation to have health LPA, if it’s clear that the person has lost all mental capacity?

 

[Whisperer]

My FIL was placed into the care home recently, because my MIL couldn’t cope any more and it was dangerous to keep him at home.

It’s only 1 week that my FIL spent there, but there are difficulties with settling in. He says he wants to leave and be at home with my MIL.

The care home asked us today for financial and health LPA. We have financial LPA, but we don’t have health LPA.

Is it an obligation to have health LPA, if it’s clear that the person has lost all mental capacity?

Dear Katie
Having an LPA for health and welfare would have been best, only being allowed to be used after the donor has lost mental capacity. Not having such a document can potentially make things harder depending on the circumstances. For instance the care home would need to have regard for your wishes if you had such an LPA. However even in its absence a good care home should be mindful of the concerns of close relatives. Take a different situation like a hospital admission. Showing the ward staff a LPA for health and welfare should make staff aware that there is a close relative to consult eg on plans to discharge the patient, after care plans, etc. However some threads here suggest in reality this does not always happen. Additionally even with an LPA a doctor would always have the last say in treatment matters, unless the LPA laid out patient wishes when say near death eg do not resuscitate. Going back to the care home if you feel totally ignored then perhaps it is a sign that you have the wrong nursing home. Why would staff ignore the wishes of close relatives if they were nothing more than reasonable. Without capacity it is to late now to arrange an LPA for health and welfare, but that in itself need not create huge issues. Hope this help and I no doubt other members f the forum will comment soon.

 

[Katie_Fr]

Thank you so much @Whisperer for the response.

The care home hasn’t refused to admit my FIL and he stays there. I am just looking for potential problems we may face. The whole process wasn’t that easy for us.

 

[Sirena]

There isn't an obligation to have health LPA. I only have finance LPA and I moved my mother to a care home earlier this year (she's self funding). I had to make that decision because she no longer has capacity to decide anything and was not safe at home. Fortunately she is very happy there and has never wanted to 'go home'. In the past three years my mother's doctors, care agencies and social services have all dealt with me as next of kin with no problem.

Problems can arise if the person with dementia wants to go home and is deemed to have the capacity to make that decision - in that case, they can make their own choice where to live. If they don't have capacity someonelse has to make the decision for them, and in my experience it will make little difference whether you are behaving as next of kin or you have health LPA. If he continues to ask to go home I would guess that social services and mental health professionals may become involved to assess capacity (this hasn't been an issue for me so I don't know the process involved, other members will know for sure). However he has only been there for a week and it is very common for people with dementia to ask to go home in the early days, so it could be he will settle down and it won't be an issue at all.

 

[marionq]

I have POA for my husband on both finance and health and welfare. At his 2017 respite we had a new young social worker who wanted all i s dotted and t s crossed. As well as POA she wanted a letter from his psychiatrist as to his capacity. The consultant indulged her and wrote a letter saying he did not have the capacity to decide where he lived.

That of course should not have been necessary but I now have a copy of the letter should it be needed again. Perhaps you could get similar.