My dad has had a form of dementia for a year now its taken until now to get a positive diagnosis so he can have medication.
Our solicitor and the social services adult protection duty manager have both advised i cannot apply for power of attorney by definition that dementia means dad has no mental capacity,would have to apply for court deputyship,another solicitor says we can apply for POA
we should have sorted this earlier but it was the last thing on our minds when everything else was going on,anyone else had this situation?
These days (in England) a person has to have the mental capacity to give someone a Lasing Power of Attorney. If the person does not have such capacity, then the alternative is to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy. Some years ago, when the wording was different, my wife's mother gave her power of attorney , and a doctor and manager at the hospital had to certify that she had the mental capacity to understand the implications. The second solicitor you met appears to be wrong. See here for the Government paper on this matter.
Court of Protection and here CAB advice
Rdave 13 thanks
jb - couldn't have put it better myself
fm - my understanding as well
thanks all
From what's been said to me by my solicitor and social services and replys on here it cannot be done,dad doesn't have the capacity i know that,thanks
It's a salutary lesson. Everyone should put in place a Power of Attorney while able to do so. My mother made me her Attorney which made things easy when she succumbed to dementia and my wife and and I have appointed our son as Attorney so that when and if the time comes, he will be able to act on our behalf.
Answer
A194
yes i agree but it was sudden within a week he couldn't drive his car,turn tv on,couldn't do anything,doctor referred him to psych in Jan 2013,after mri scan we were given a preliminary diagnosis,took lots of scans and assessments until he was finally diagnosed in march 2014,he was so bad last thing on our mind was LPA,and then it was too late when it all settled down
