When we think about losing mental capacity, our first concern is usually about who will access our money and pay our bills.
Often the question of who will make decisions concerning our health and welfare if we lose the ability to make those decisions for ourselves is overlooked.
Lasting Powers of Attorney allow you to nominate people (‘Attorneys’) to make decisions for you if there comes a time where you are no longer able to make decisions for yourself about your health and/or finances.
A Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare allows you to appoint Attorneys to make decisions that relate to your health and welfare if you are unable to make these decisions for yourself. These decisions can range from relatively small day to day decisions to bigger decisions regarding where you should live, what medical treatment you should receive and whether you should or shouldn’t be given life sustaining treatment.
Whilst you have mental capacity to make these decisions about your own health and welfare you must do so. However, if you lose mental capacity then your Attorneys can step into your shoes and make these decisions for you.
When is Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare useful?
A Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare is useful for making day to day decisions, but it can also be useful to ensure that your wishes and feelings are heard when making some of the bigger decisions that concern your health and welfare.
For example, you could express your wishes, feelings or even instructions as to where you should live, what sort of care you want and what medical treatment you’re happy to have or not have which your Attorneys will need to consider or follow when making decisions for you.
Making decisions about someone’s health and welfare, particularly when questions arise in respect of end-of-life care or life sustaining medical treatment, can put quite a burden on loved ones and we often find that it helps to have a Lasting Power of Attorney that provides some guidance as to what your wishes in that situation would be.
Whilst decisions may be possible even if you don’t have a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare through liaising with next of kin and medical practitioners, this isn’t always straightforward. Sometimes, there are disputes within the family or even with the medical professionals as to the best way forwards and having a Lasting Power of Attorney can help those involved reach a decision by ensuring that the people you want to make those decisions that represent your views are involved in that process.
When should I make a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare?
People often believe that Lasting Powers of Attorney are only necessary as you get older as they are often associated with diseases that mainly affect the elderly such as dementia.
However, mental capacity can be lost at any time i.e. in an accident or an unexpected health condition, so it is important that you have Lasting Powers of Attorney whatever age you are.
Next Steps...
If you have any queries or if you would like some advice regarding making a Lasting Power of Attorney then please do not hesitate to contact me via telephone on 01283 214 231 or via email on s.wildsmith@timms-law.com.
For more information about Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney, please visit our webpage here.
