Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney (PoA) is a legal document that lets someone else make decisions for you if you can’t do it yourself. The person you choose to make these decisions is called your “attorney.” You can ask anyone you trust to be your attorney.

There are two main types of Power of Attorney:

1. Welfare Power of Attorney – This allows someone to make decisions about your health and well-being.
2. Financial Power of Attorney – This allows someone to make financial decisions for you.

You can choose different people for each type of Power of Attorney, or the same person can handle both. If you have more than one attorney, you can choose if they have to make decisions together or can make them on their own.

You decide when your Financial Power of Attorney starts, but your Welfare Power of Attorney will only begin if you can no longer make decisions yourself. This is sometimes called “losing capacity”.

To get a Power of Attorney, you need to choose someone to act on your behalf while you are still able to make decisions.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Talk to people close to you about why you want a Power of Attorney.
2. Decide who will be your attorney. You can choose one person for welfare decisions and another for financial decisions.
3. Once you’ve chosen, you need to register the papers with the Office of the Public Guardian.

Because it’s an important legal document, it’s a good idea to get help from a lawyer or solicitor to make sure everything is done properly. For more information, visit My Power Of Attorney – Scotland.

“Losing capacity” means you can no longer look after your own financial and personal matters. This can happen because of health problems like dementia, a stroke, or other conditions. In Scotland, a person is an adult at 16 and can make their own decisions unless a doctor says they can’t.

Signs that someone has lost capacity include:

• Forgetting decisions
• Not being able to act on decisions
• Not being able to understand or make decisions
• Not being able to tell other people about the decisions they want made

Many people think that if they lose the ability to make decisions, their family can automatically help. But unless you’ve set up a Power of Attorney, your family can’t make decisions for you.

Without a Power of Attorney, the court will have to choose someone to be your “Guardian,” which can take a long time and be expensive.

Carer Information Scotland have more information on the guardian process.

There is a cost for registering a Power of Attorney. There may be other costs like legal fees or getting a “certificate of capacity”. However there may be financial help available to cover these costs. You can ask Citizens Advice Scotland or visit the My Power of Attorney website for more details.

After setting up your Power of Attorney, it’s important to talk with your attorney so they understand what you want if you can’t make decisions for yourself later on. You might want to write down your wishes in a Future Care Plan.

Let your doctors and health professionals know who your attorney is, so they can contact them if needed.

If you don’t have a Welfare Power of Attorney set up, it can cause delays in your care. For example, some people stay in the hospital longer than needed because there is no one to make health decisions for them. This means that doctors and nurses are less able to help other patients who need care.

Right now, many people in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have to stay in the hospital longer because they don’t have a Welfare Power of Attorney. This takes up beds that could be used for other patients. It also means ambulances and staff can’t help as many people in the community or in emergency care.

Having a Welfare Power of Attorney helps keep things running smoothly and ensures patients get the care they need faster.