Heath & Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney, or Advanced Decision, or both?

We are finding that more and more people appreciate the importance of preparing a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) to cover Health and Welfare decisions alongside a Property and Financial affairs LPA. Increasingly too, we are also being asked about “living Wills” (legally  known as “advanced decisions” or , in the past, “advanced directives”). The two documents are different however and care must be taken when preparing these to ensure that both remain valid.

Health and Welfare LPA’s

This is a document under which you appoint one or more people to take Health and Welfare decisions on your behalf, if you are unable to at any given time. This could include a choice of care home, whether you should receive a flu jab of example, or more serious medical decisions about particular forms of surgery. The forms specifically ask you to state whether, or not, your attorneys may make decisions about life sustaining treatment. At all times your attorneys must act in your best interests.

These documents must be completed and signed in a particular order and then registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before they can be used. The smallest mistake can lead to the documents being rejected by the OPG, meaning you have to start from scratch. For that reason, we always recommend that these should be professionally prepared.

Advance Decisions

These documents allow you to stipulate circumstances under which you would not wish to receive medical treatment (not to be resuscitated for example). If a valid advanced decision is in place, it must be complied with even if it is not considered to be in the persons best interests 

Can I have both forms?

The answer is yes but care must be taken when preparing them. If an LPA is made after an Advanced Decision then the LPA overrides it. This means your attorney would not be bound by your wishes and so you might receive treatment you had previously stated that you would not want to receive. Obviously, there could be much confusion if both documents were signed on the same day! 

Assisted suicide

It is also important to appreciate that (at the time of writing) assisted suicide remains illegal. Neither an LPA or Advanced Decision gives anyone the authority to authorise this. 

Conclusion

Clearly both documents will only be needed and relied on at a stressful time, and they are not nice things to think about. However, they do give you the ability to set out you wishes, and to choose who makes decision for you. Better people you know and love do this than a stranger!