Anyone know anything about protection of vulnerable adults? SOVA?

**curlywurly**

apologies this is long ! I have elderly relatives in their late 90s. Still live in own home. They have carers in twice a day, and many relatives some of whom pop in regularly, do their banking, arrange for medical appointments, etc, some of whom visit once a month, some once a year. A family member has a power of attorney to deal with all their finances, and also does their shopping and administers their tablets etc. They are well cared for, although their health is declining and Uncle is in and out of hospital. Uncle is mentally OK on and off, Aunt is agraphobic, not left the house for 60 years and is not all there mentally but she manages.

In the last couple of months, Uncle has become very cantankerous, and he has fallen out with some family members. Cue next door neighbours, who have, bit by bit, muscled their way in, and who now virtually live with Aunt and Uncle, who are now saying that they should have power of attorney to deal with their affairs (they say Uncle has asked them to do that), who are administering their medication (again, they say Uncle has insisted), who sign the carers in and out, and who have started telling tales within the family (ie, they told my dad that his brother has stolen money from Uncle. They have also taken Uncle's wallet containing approx £2,000 "for safekeeping". Uncle is in hospital and refusing to see anyone except the neighbours.

Latest development - Uncle has declared that he wants to change his will and the power of attorney. I assume this would be in favour of neighbours.

My family care very deeply about Uncle and Aunt, and have looked after them for a long time. my family are also very "shy" if that's the right word - they are of the view that if Uncle wants to change his will, then so be it, and if he wants to give away power of attorney to neighbours, then also so be it.

Whilst I am in agreement that Aunt and Uncle must do what they please, it seems pretty plain to me that neighbours are taking advantage of Aunt and Uncle. I am concerned that if Uncle re-writes his will, then Aunt may end up with nothing (he is cantankerous and often swears blind he hates Aunt and would divorce her if he could).

I have spoken to a solicitor about the legal side of things. What I am wondering if anybody has any non-legal advice about dealing with this situation, and if anybody knows what a SOVA is? Statement of Vulnerable Adult? I have googled it but not come up with anything very useful.

V grateful for any input!

cat_lady_4

Hi curlywurly,

sorry to hear your relative is in hospital, it does sound like the neighbour is taking advantage. There are several ways of flagging your concerns up, but the simplest is make a referral to your social care services. They will investigate, probably by involving the social workers at the hospital. If you google your county council website, they should lead you to a number to call. In my area it is called customer first. Alternatively you could call your local council offices. I had a reason to call our number last week, and found them helpful. The family member who has POA cannot simply have it taken off them by the neighbours.

SOVA stands for safegauarding of vulnerable adults, and is basically the process of protecting vulnerable people from harm. Your relatives are at risk from financial abuse. Basically, a social worker will investigate your concerns, and at the very least i would push for their carers visits top increase. If they suspect a crime has taken place, eg if they didnt return the wallet, they would involve the police.

Hope this helps.

cat_lady_4

ps, i'm not a lawyer, but there's no way he can write is own wife out of the will! However, i would also tell social services about these threats as she is also vulnerable adult and should not be experiencing the emotional or financial distress of these threats x

snapping_crocodile

It's lovely that they have you looking out for them. SOVA is more commonly termed POVA (in health circles at least), which is protection of vulnerabe adults. Try googlinh that and see if you have better success

cookie54

i am a care worker and we see this quite a lot !!!!! It seems that the next doot neighbour may be leading the them to believe that they need him more then they do .

I would get the family member with poa to speak with the care supervisor and ask them to record all going on in the book. If the neighbour is giving meds i would check that they know what they are doing? Why is the neighbour seeing the carers in can you not get a keysafe so they can let themselves in/ out?

Also try and have a good chat with either there gp or the srn nurse on the ward and see what they view his mental ability to be because you have to be of full mental compatity to change pov/ will.

As you have been advised i would contact ss and get them a names sw and then keep a diary of all events like the wallet etc so that youknow what is going on . I would also check bank acounts etc.

finally let the medical team know who has POA as things may change so suddenly .

Mupette

I'm not sure about this he can not write his wife out of the will bit. (I'm not a lawyer either)

He can do what he wants with his will.

But when it boils down to being of sound mind at the time of re writing the will.. that could be contested.

shortchanged_2

I would say if a family member already has power of attorney, that indicates that your uncle and aunt have already been deemed of not sound enough mind to deal with their own affairs.

Therefore tell these neighbours to take a running jump and mind their own business. Only a court of law can determine power of attorney and I doubt very much they would give that to some neighbours while there are still living relatives who are still in contact.

It sounds as if your relatives already have a good social service package of care so from that point of view they are well looked after.

It is possible that your uncle has dementia (very much sounds like it) and therefore may not really be capable of making a rational decision and these neighbours are playing on this.

At the end of the day you have to remember that these neighbours have no legal right to make any decisions for your aunt and uncle. I don't know the whole situation, maybe they feel they have some right as they've known your uncle and aunt for many years, I don't know. But the bottom line is at the moment unless the power of attorney is changed and I doubt very much it will, they have no right to do what they are doing.

As for holding onto the £2000 they have no right to do this. Who said it was £2000, possibly there is more? If there is already a relative who has power of attorney for financial matters then this should be in their care.

picnmix

Hi, I work in an area of care of the elderly, as advised above you need to contact your local social services so they can then look into this, there should also be a hospital team who you can contact to look at the situation upon your relatives discharge. I really hope this situation gets sorted. x

Savvy_Sue

May also be worth contacting Elder Abuse.