People often hesitate to put in place the Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney, people wonder what use they will be to their relatives if they appoint them to be in charge of where they live, what they eat and what they drink when they have lost their mental capacity and/or their ability to make their own decisions.
Surely the doctors and carers will listen to their next of kin in making decisions about their own care in the future? Unfortunately, this is not always true.
This was recently placed in perspective for me, when an attorney called the office wondering how she could stop her mother’s treatment at a care home, her mother was unconscious and receiving various antibiotics. As the client only had the Property and Finance Powers of Attorney, and not the Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney no immediate help could be provided. If the Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney had been in place, the attorney may have been able to, depending on the nature of the health care being provided, been able to instruct the doctors/carers to stop.
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