A Health and Welfare LPA allows an attorney to make decisions on your behalf about medical treatments and care. This can include:
- Organising and consenting to any medical treatments, examinations and medicines you may require. This would also include accessing personal information such as medical reports, and dealing with any prescriptions on your behalf. It would also mean that they would be able to make decisions about whether or not to continue with any form of life-sustaining treatment, or resuscitation, should you require it in the future.
- Taking care of your living arrangements. This can include arranging for any care or equipment you may require at home, or organising and choosing a suitable care home should you require residential care.
- Helping with your day-to-day care. The attorney can also support you with washing, dressing and eating meals, along with helping to arrange holidays or social visits to family and friends.
Whilst your attorney can act for you on all the above, it is important to keep in mind that they would not be able to deal with any of the associated financial elements (paying for care, for example). They would need to request the money from the person responsible for your financial affairs, or have been appointed attorneys themselves through a Property & Financial LPA.
A Health and Welfare LPA only comes into effect if you are ever considered to have lost the mental capacity to make these decisions on your own. This would mean that your attorneys would not be able to make any of these decisions on your behalf, unless you were ever unable to do so yourself.
If you have any queries about a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health & Welfare, please do not hesitate to contact our expert team, who would be more than happy to help.
My father is elderly and has said that he would prefer me to deal with his bills and finances for him. Can I do this?
As long as your father has mental capacity he could do this by giving you “power of attorney” which will allow you to look after things for up to a year for him. If he later loses mental capacity, however, then the power of attorney will come to an end.
Alternatively, your father could give you Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). This would not come to an end if your father were to lose mental capacity later on, and will last indefinitely, not just for one year. We would need to see your father personally so we can explain the LPA to him and make sure this is what he wants. We would then be able to prepare a document for him to sign, which would give you power to deal with his finances on his behalf.
We will tailor-make the LPA to suit your father’s wishes and we can discuss his options with him at the initial appointment. It cannot be used until it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, and we would be happy to deal with this too.
What do I do next?
We are always keen to find the best solution possible for your particular circumstances, and we know that no two families are the same. Whatever your circumstances you can telephone us or make an appointment to discuss your situation with us in more detail. We will then be able advise you as to the best way forward.