Lasting Powers of Attorney:
Health and Welfare

When we have our health we don’t like to think about what may happen in the future, but illness or accidents can intervene without warning.  Advances in science mean we are living longer but this sadly increases our chances of ending our days without our mental faculties.

Many people understand you can appoint attorneys to help with your finances and property with a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) or an Enduring Power of Attorney.  However more people are now also making an LPA which deals with health and personal welfare.

These attorneys are able to make decisions on your behalf about where you live and who you live with; your daily care; who you have contact with; and consenting to or refusing medical treatment.

So what happens if you don’t have an LPA in place?   In practice these important health and welfare decisions are left to professionals – doctors, social workers or care staff.  Any professional should consult with you (to the extent that you still have some mental understanding) and your carers, and take reasonable steps to reach agreement.   They may also consult with family members, but do not have to.  However consultation does not necessarily mean that they have to follow the carers’ wishes, and professionals are busy people who will not know you as well as those close to you.

Doing a Health and Welfare LPA means you decide who makes these decisions for you if you can’t make them yourself and ensures your relative or carer has more say on your health and welfare matters.  They make decisions based on your best interests and their knowledge of what you would have wished, and there is also the ability for you to enable them to make decisions whether you should receive life sustaining treatment.

Of course you have to completely trust your attorneys will make the right decisions for you, but if you are fortunate with your relatives and carers the Health and Welfare LPA is most probably the right thing to do.