Dementia Can Affect Everyone so Make Your Lasting Power of Attorney
03/05/2016
Every year, 225,000 people are diagnosed with dementia – about one person every three minutes. While age is the most significant contributing factor to the condition, it’s not just the ‘old’ that develop it; one out of 20 people living with dementia are under the age of 65.
Dementia is an all-encompassing term used to describe a collective group of symptoms that occur when brain cells stop working properly. While most people associate it with memory loss, the condition affects people in a wide variety of ways. This includes changes in behaviour, confusion and disorientation, delusions and hallucinations, difficulty communicating, problems judging speeds and distances, even craving for particular foods.
In the UK, more women live with dementia than men. Of the 850,000 people living with the condition, 500,000 of them are women. This could be because more women are living well into their 80s – nearly three in four people aged over 90 are women. According to Alzheimer’s research, women over 60 are twice as likely to develop dementia as they are of getting breast cancer and after the age of 65, the risk of dementia doubles every five years.
Being diagnosed with a degenerative mental illness such as dementia ultimately means there’s likely to be problems with maintaining your independence. Support will be critical for your well-being, but once your mental ability starts to fail, your way of life could end up being decided by strangers. This is why it’s so important to make arrangements for your care in case a time comes when you can’t do it yourself.
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that gives someone else the right to act for you and make decisions on your behalf. This person – or more than one person if you prefer – is referred to as your attorney. Anyone can be your attorney, as long as they’re over 18.
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney. The first focuses on your personal welfare, while the other deals with your financial affairs.
A health and welfare LPA allows your attorney to make decisions about your well-being. This covers a wide variety of issues, for example your day-to-day care including medication, your diet and how you live. You can even give your attorney the power to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment on your behalf.
A property and affairs LPA addresses the material things in your life, such as paying your bills, collecting your income and benefits, conducting your financial affairs or even selling your house. One thing to be aware of with a property and affairs LPA is that your attorney isn’t allowed to have been declared bankrupt.
Dementia is indiscriminate. It can affect anyone at any time in later life, so it’s reassuring to know that if you’re unable to make a decision yourself, an LPA will ensure there’s someone that you trust who can.
The key to a Lasting Power of Attorney, however, is that you can only set one up when you’re well. Once you’ve lost capacity, it’s too late because the law deems that you’re not deciding for yourself that you want to make a LPA and that you don’t understand what it means, so timing is of the essence.
If you’re interested in drafting your LPA, Russell and Russell offers a free no obligation consultation to guide you through the regulations and to discuss what’s right for your circumstances.