Have you ever considered what would happen to your personal and financial affairs if you lost the capacity to make your own decisions through illness or injury?
It’s national Power of Attorney Day on Thursday, November 23, and families across North Ayrshire are being urged to think about arranging Power of Attorney (PoA) over loved ones in a bid to protect their wishes if the worst should happen.
Without PoA, your family and loved ones have no legal right to make decisions on your behalf should you lose capacity. Instead, these decisions will be made by the health and social care team looking after you.
While the courts can appoint someone to act as your Guardian after you become incapacitated, this can be a complicated and expensive process that can lead to long delays in being able to leave hospital.
Even when you’re medically fit to leave you may legally not be able to, which can be extremely distressing for patients and families.
Power of Attorney is a legal document allowing a nominated person to act or make decisions on a family member or friend’s behalf, and North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership is appealing for more people to sign up.
There are three different types of PoA available:
- Continuing PoA, which gives powers to deal with money and/or property.
- Welfare PoA, which gives powers to make decisions around health or personal welfare matters.
- Combined PoA, which gives both continuing and welfare power.
