L p a/ ss

[crafty]

Hi, Its crafty here again i wondered if anyone could help please.

My Sister and I have LPA for our Dad and on the Public Guardian website it gives you a list of things you must abide by. One of which is "A duty of confidentiality - to keep the donor’s affairs confidential unless the donor has consented otherwise"

Our Dad would no way give his permission for anyone to See what his finances are like even at the stage he is now, He wouldn't sign the paper that the CPN nurse brought with her to give his permission for her to get his medical records. So how would we stand in this situation if we brought SS in to get him assest for help with his care? and they wanted to do a financial assessment, of all the things Dad has forgot or has trouble with MONEY is not one of them.

Thank you in advance for your help.
Crafty x

 

[Lost Perci]

Lpa

Hi Crafty

There's two key points anyone with Power of Attorney (or Deputyship) have to abide by

1) They must never assume someone doesn't have the capacity to decide about a particular question, they must always find out

2) If they do act, they must always act in the best interests of the person they're responsible for

So, you need to have a mental health professional find out if he lacks capacity on two questions:

1) Does he understand that a medical professional needs to look at his medical records

2) Does he understand that his financial position should be looked at in order to see if he should pay for care?

If he officially lacks capacity, you can go ahead and act. If a Psychologist, CPN or Mental health Social worker says he has capacity, there's nothing you can do. Someone with capacity makes their own decisions, no matter how crazy their decisions seem to someone else, they have the right.

To be honest, I feel that's entirely right, I wouldn't want someone deciding the things I do or want are unreasonable if I still had any ability to decide.

Perci

 

[Contrary Mary]

Mum definitely does not have capacity to consent to anything. However, the duty of confidentiality can conflict with the person's "best interests". (Found on the Code of Practice page 132)

Would your Dad be regarded as self-funding, ie over the savings limit.On Mum's form for SS, I simply say that she is over the limit and will pay the full cost/contribution. I don't give details unless absolutely necessary. (Much as I would do for myself!)

Mary

 

[nogginthenog]

I have a LPA for my MIL and find these decisions very hard.

If your relative still has the capacity to understand the particular issue and does not want the information disclosed even if you think this is a bad idea and not in his best interest then it is clear that you have to abide by this. The guidance is very specific that you cannot intervene just because the person is making "bad" decisions only if they do not understand the consequence of those decisions.

If they cannot understand then you are allowed to divulge the information ( in the same way the person could themselves ) if it is in their best interests and there is a good reason for doing so. Normally social services assessments and means tests would clearly represent a good and valid reason for doing so. However - if the individual was the type of person that would never have divulged this then you have to think long and hard about it.

At the end of the day you have to be pragmatic - and ask yourslf whatever the person would have done in the past what would they do now if they were capable of understanding - and this has to be a balance between the implication of both courses of action.

If you are concerned about a particular decision the main thing is to be clear that you have thought it through and acted in the best interests of the person involved. If necessary discuss with other people involved or with an appropriate professional and document your reasoning.

 

[crafty]

Thank you all for your replies.
This is so hard because if Dad had capacity now there would be no way he would let anybody see anything about his finances not even us kids.

Mam and Dad were from the old school, even us kids new nothing about their financies it was their business nobody elses, and it wasn't until mam died that we new anything.
Thank you
Crafty xx