Power Of Attorney v's Guardianship (Scotland)

GlasweJen

The competency thing is a joke, the council involved (they aim higher) said that our aunt had to have a mental age of 8 or else she would be deemed as not being able to make her own decisions, that's after the independent MH/LD advocate said that aunt knew exactly what was going on and she was very upset and wanted to be looked after by her family.

The hospital have had aunt down as being mentally 9 or 10 for over 20 years but somehow social work managed to find a doctor who said she was 6.5 mentally - how many 6 year olds do you know who can use a microwave, make tea and can programme their sky plus box?

Richie-from-the-Boro

If the O/P's mother and combined family have decided to fight the possibility of Government getting their sticky fingers on the assets in relation to property and financial matters, personal welfare, or a combination of these they have to go to law immediately, there are no other immediate options.

Their one advantage is their ability to move faster than the grindingly slow wheels of a bloated multi-department bureaucracy - they should use this asset of speed to their benefit !

If I was doing it I'd block the back door with a formal Guardianship application to the sheriff - whilst blocking the front door with a lawyer.

sleepless_saver

rogerblack wrote: »

And of course, some of the forms of guardianship absolutely can't be entered into without the opinion of a relevant medical person.
A solicitor simply can't legally do it, anymore than he can do brain surgery.

Solicitors definitely can certify for PoA in Scotland. Extract from Office of Public Guardian guidance below:

it [PoA] must incorporate a certificate in the prescribed form by a practising solicitor, a practising member of the Faculty of Advocates or a registered and licensed medical practitioner which certifies that he or she:
• has interviewed the granter immediately before the granter
signed the document;
• is satisfied, either because of their knowledge of the
granter or because of consultation with another person
who has knowledge of the granter, that at the time of
granting the power, the granter understands its nature and
extent; and
• has no reason to believe that the granter is acting under
undue influence.

ETA: but it's different for guardianship where you need 2 medical practitioners to say that a person is not capable of managing their own affairs.

valk_scot

:rotfl:

GlasweJen wrote: »

The competency thing is a joke, the council involved (they aim higher) said that our aunt had to have a mental age of 8 or else she would be deemed as not being able to make her own decisions, that's after the independent MH/LD advocate said that aunt knew exactly what was going on and she was very upset and wanted to be looked after by her family.

The hospital have had aunt down as being mentally 9 or 10 for over 20 years but somehow social work managed to find a doctor who said she was 6.5 mentally - how many 6 year olds do you know who can use a microwave, make tea and can programme their sky plus box?

Um...my kids could do all that when they were six. Which is more than their father ever could re the Sky box....:rotfl:

Anyway, I digress. I think unless you've got a family solicitor that has known your mother well for many years you'll have to get a doctor to certify competancy. In the case of my mother our family solicitor had known her for many years and also my mother's illness did not affect her mental capacity, she was still as sharp as a knife. It was because her upcoming op carried a danger of having a stroke that we got PofA taken out so quickly. So it was an easy decision for him to assess her as capable wheras I think you'd need an appropriately trained medical professional to assess your mother if the crux of the matter is whether she has a mental age of 9 or 6. A good solicitor should be able to access this sort of medical expert easily enough though I have to say, the opinions of independant medical professionals don't come cheap. In another (entirely unrelated) case we had to pay out 2 x £600 just for two independant medical experts to review some medical notes. In your case you'd also have some hefty legal fees to arrange all this, plus there will be the legal fight over the Guardianship v PofA. Are you up for all of this cost wise? You might be able to access free legal help via any union membership you may have btw, or through your house insurance.

Russia2005

Our mother suffers from Alzheimer's and we have a meeting with our local council tomorrow at noon to determine my mothers care home.

We have not agreed with the level of care that our council are proposing she needs and have been in dispute them for 5 weeks. We believe they are acting only to meet their usual costs restraints and are in the process of officially challenging this
after several attempts by us to try and resolve this and the fact that 5 care homes have carried out assessments which have confirmed a higher level of care that the council are refusing to fund.
Briefly my mother was hospitalised after a fall. She could have been discharged from hospital 5 weeks ago but because we could not agree a care home her doctor said that she should remain in hospital until one was found as it would be detrimental to health if she was moved temporarily. At that time of course no one expected it would drag on for this long (7 weeks) and quite rightly so the hospital want her discharged.
I believe long term, we will be able to prove my mothers care needs but we have a problem which we really did not see coming. Because my mother has no property or money we never applied for power of attorney. We have since found out that our council now have it and again I believe we can challenge this but this will take time. We think at tomorrow's meeting the council will say they have power of attorney and they will be placing my mother somewhere and we cannot do anything about it. What can we do to stop this happening. We are seriously considering the need to kidnap our own mother at this point.
Whatever responses we get to this please Martin can you make people aware of the importance to get power of attorney over your loved ones as this is not just required when there is property or finances involved. It means that without this your family or carer are not involved in meetings, you do not have access to documents and ultimately they have full control of your loved ones.

GlasweJen

valk_scot wrote: »

:rotfl:

Um...my kids could do all that when they were six. Which is more than their father ever could re the Sky box....:rotfl:

Would social services be ok with you leaving them alone over night every night and only popping in for an hour three times a day? That's the arrangement they have for my aunt at the moment.