healthmedicinet

They can also outline specific details about how they wish to be treated –
such as a desire to stay in their own home as long as possible, or not to be
resuscitated, and can set out details of religious beliefs, or dietary
preferences.

Without such information, dilemnas are faced by health workers and relatives –
and can even result in “court of protection” hearings, officials said.

The new figures from the Ministry of Justice show that of 900,000
registrations since 2007, just 180,000 have related to “health and welfare”
while 720,000 relate to property and finance.

Mr Hughes said such matters were better considered at the point of retirement,
rather than delayed until the point of diagnosis, when discussions were
likely to become much more fraught.

He said: “We want to promote the idea of thinking ahead. This is about
choosing the person who will take decisions for you insteated of leaving it
to a time when you are much less capable of dealing with such things.”

Under the law, such agreements only take force if a person loses mental
capacity, as agreed by an assessment by health professionals.

Mr Hughes said: “This can protect families from really difficult dilemnas – if
you make the decisions when you can, you avoid others having to take them
for you. There are really big questions to be considered – do you want to
stay at home as long as possible, or to go into a care home, in your last
days, do you want everthing to be done to keep you going – to be kept
artificially alive?”

He said that the elderly were often less fearful of such decisions than their
families, but did not know there was a way to make advance plans on such
matters.

“When you talk to those in these circumstances, often they don’t run away from
it – they know theyir own minds but they don’t know there is a way to make
provision for this,” he said.

Research by the Office of the Public Guardian, which registers lasting powers
of attorney, found that many people were not aware they could be used to
make plans for health and welfare.

But others admitted to feeling “superstitious,” fearing that drawing up such
plans would mean that they were more likely to suffer from conditions which
affected their mental capacity.

Officials said it seemed that many people thought their financial affairs were
more “tangible” and found it easier to contemplate the idea of ceding
control of paying their bills, than of passing on responsibility for
decisions about welfare.

Mr Hughes said: “People should assume they will be less capable of looking
after their affairs later in life – that needs to be the working assumption.
This needs to be a converation with someone you trust. Once you have faced
that, it actually it takes some of the worries away, because it ensures your
needs are put first and it also reduces the risk of abuse.”

He said that too often, decisions about welfare ended up being taken by health
and care professionals who barely knew the individual, or by relatives who
only began taking an interest after pensioner became too confused to assert
their wishes.

Mr Hughes said: “The alternative is decisions being made by people who came
accidentally into your life – the new care home worker, the GP you don’t
know.”

He said such steps also protected the vulnerable from exploitation.

“Sometimes the people who present themselves – who appear at the care home
when people are vulnerable are not those with the person’s best interests at
heart,” he said.

“Happily those cases are rare – but they should be enough to give sufficient
warning about why you would want to have someone you trust taking
responsibility,” he said.

The Telegraph is supporting new awards by the Alzheimer’s Society, to
celebrate the efforts of individuals, businesses and communities to create
dementia-friendly communities, which will be presented next month.

http://alzheimers.org.uk/dementiafriendlyawards