Hi!
I hope you'll bear with the fact that I'm new to this.
My situation is that my Mum lives in North East Scotland (& I'm an ex pat Scot living in Sheffield) & a month ago she was sectioned & taken to the local mental hospital for assessment. Having talked to her psychiatrist, they've done a brain scan & seem pretty certain that she has Alzheimer's. Their prognosis is that she will end up in a care home & as a result of this, they consider that they will apply for a Guardianship Order, which will then lead to the State attempting to obtain a "resettlement" for some of the costs of the funding of their care costs. Does anybody know the cut off point for this in Scotland (as all I've seen are for England & Wales)?
While this is fairly common practice, nobody seems to be much concerned with the fact that her flat is now effectively abandoned! My pressing concern with regard to this aspect of the overall situation is that the flat is now vulnerable to potential squatters. While it seems reasonable to consider obtaining lasting powers of attorney for both welfare & financial issues, even if my mother agrees (& as a result of how other elderly people have been treated by their children, she's quite paranoid about being cheated!), it would seem that I'm reliant upon her psychiatrist agreeing that she's competent to give me (her only son & sole surviving relative) power of attorney - which doesn't make me feel too comfortable!
I feel that I need to gain access to her flat, not only to sort out her affairs, but also, being long term unemployed for physical health reasons, initially I need somewhere to stay as a base for visiting her, etc. The trouble is that I don't even have a key to the flat, though it would seem that she probably does, as they decided to section her, for their convenience, @ her local day centre. I've contacted my mother'ssolicitor over these matters, but not only has she ignored the matter of the key, but seems far more interested in getting me to fill out forms with regards to money laundering prevention, & generally raising even more unanswered questions!
Given that, it would seem, if I'm to obtain any progress, I'll have to fall back on contacting either my mother's social worker (& as she's probably the one who'll be applying for the Guardianship Order, there's the potential there for a "conflict of interests") or directly contacting the staff on the ward where she's being assessed. Given our present culture of confidentiality laws, & bureaucrats using regulations to protect themselves from accepting responsibility, what rights -entitlement do I have in requesting that the key (or a copy), be forwarded to me?
Cheers,
Jim
I hope you'll bear with the fact that I'm new to this.
My situation is that my Mum lives in North East Scotland (& I'm an ex pat Scot living in Sheffield) & a month ago she was sectioned & taken to the local mental hospital for assessment. Having talked to her psychiatrist, they've done a brain scan & seem pretty certain that she has Alzheimer's. Their prognosis is that she will end up in a care home & as a result of this, they consider that they will apply for a Guardianship Order, which will then lead to the State attempting to obtain a "resettlement" for some of the costs of the funding of their care costs. Does anybody know the cut off point for this in Scotland (as all I've seen are for England & Wales)?
While this is fairly common practice, nobody seems to be much concerned with the fact that her flat is now effectively abandoned! My pressing concern with regard to this aspect of the overall situation is that the flat is now vulnerable to potential squatters. While it seems reasonable to consider obtaining lasting powers of attorney for both welfare & financial issues, even if my mother agrees (& as a result of how other elderly people have been treated by their children, she's quite paranoid about being cheated!), it would seem that I'm reliant upon her psychiatrist agreeing that she's competent to give me (her only son & sole surviving relative) power of attorney - which doesn't make me feel too comfortable!
I feel that I need to gain access to her flat, not only to sort out her affairs, but also, being long term unemployed for physical health reasons, initially I need somewhere to stay as a base for visiting her, etc. The trouble is that I don't even have a key to the flat, though it would seem that she probably does, as they decided to section her, for their convenience, @ her local day centre. I've contacted my mother'ssolicitor over these matters, but not only has she ignored the matter of the key, but seems far more interested in getting me to fill out forms with regards to money laundering prevention, & generally raising even more unanswered questions!
Given that, it would seem, if I'm to obtain any progress, I'll have to fall back on contacting either my mother's social worker (& as she's probably the one who'll be applying for the Guardianship Order, there's the potential there for a "conflict of interests") or directly contacting the staff on the ward where she's being assessed. Given our present culture of confidentiality laws, & bureaucrats using regulations to protect themselves from accepting responsibility, what rights -entitlement do I have in requesting that the key (or a copy), be forwarded to me?
Cheers,
Jim