Case Studies

''Having LPOA will allow me to keep my loved one safe, won’t it?''

''I have held LPOA for my 102-year-old grandmother since 2013. I didn’t need to put it to use until 2019. I then found, to my horror, that it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on and that rather than be the person whose voice would be heard as a protector - I would find myself up against voices that would try their hardest to squash my LPOA, and me. Grandma showed signs of dementia around 2018. I was living with her and struggling to cope with the effects of this, particularly at night. I reached out to the GP in the hope that they would support me to get her assessed for more support (she was already receiving care at home three times a day)Social services decided that my Grandma had capacity (she didn’t) and that ''I was the problem''. So, rather than support me to get a formal diagnosis - they turned the tables on me - making me the problem. They surrounded me and used their power to try and get my LPOA removed. They used my health issues against me. Threatening me with TCOP and having my LPOA removed. They wrote to the OPG at the end of August 2019 to insist I was not acting in grandma’s best interest. They also tried to suggest grandma was very distressed at all times, due to me. They also insisted to the OPG I was trying to get her into home against her will, despite evidence to the contrary. It was only thanks to my SAR (Subject Access Request) that I was finally able to see exactly what they had been doing behind my back. I was then able to confront them and show that they had lied to the OPG in the hope of getting my LPOA removed.

This was six months of our lives. Six months without support for me - or grandma. Six months of an agency that purports to support vulnerable people, refusing to acknowledge grandma’s decline, and refusing to get a Psychogeriatrician to formally diagnose her. I had to arrange it myself. We were both saved when sadly, grandma was admitted to UCLH with pneumonia last November. Suddenly, I had a multidisciplinary team questioning grandma’s capacity, her mental state, and how we’d not been supported when it was so evident to them that she had advanced dementia. She remained on an assisted bay and even they struggled with her dementia. My LPOA - the important document grandma had hoped would enable me to speak for her, when she was no longer able. To speak in her best interests, was useless.
These powerful organisations do not want to hear our voices. Even when they have evidence in front of them, they continue to ignore and overrule. Most disturbingly, without any evidence to support concerns for acting against my grandmother - they were free to act with impunity. To say, and do, whatever they wanted, safe in the knowledge they would never be held to account. They weren’t. Ever. I asked the OPG to inform me if social services made contact with them. Despite agreeing to my requests they didn’t inform me. What they did do, was engage with social services behind my back, asking them questions about me and my grandmother.

When I fought for a response from them and shared evidence to prove they had been lied to - I finally got this statement from them in an email;
"The Public Guardian is indeed concerned about a local authority or any organisation using dishonesty and misrepresentation to engage with OPG, in the hope of possibly removing someone’s Power of Attorney” But they refused to take it up with them. They did nothing.

You might like to know that anyone can write to the OPG and raise concerns about your behaviour as LPOA, and they will not make contact with you to raise these concern with you. They will wait until a 'valid deed of revocation' is listed with them before you are made aware. By which time, it’s already too late.

Grandma is now in a care home. My LPOA is just as worthless there. On November 5th grandma was very poorly. They refused to listen to the concerns I’d been raising for 24 hours. Rather than get a Dr to her - they called their GP (who had not been told about grandma being ill for 24 hours) She made the best interest decision and overruled my LPOA and my wishes. Thanks to them, four hours later grandma was on her way to the hospital in an ambulance because they had refused (not for the first time) to listen when I raised concerns for her health. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and fluid on her lungs. On oxygen for a week. In hospital for a month. The home brought safeguarding against me. All the paperwork supports me. All the paperwork shows they failed to respond to grandma and to me. And, not for the first time. Surely, my LPOA should have been the shield to protect us both? It wasn’t.Something has to change. Now, more than ever, we are at the mercy of these people as we are unable to assess for ourselves, the reality of what our loved ones are going through due to this pandemic. Now, more than ever, they use their power to ensure they retain control by ensuring we are seen as troublemakers who must be kept away from any decisions… as they know best. They belittle our concerns as ‘overreacting’.
''And, the very thing we trust and assume allows our voices to be heard above theirs... Is in many cases not worth the paper it’s printed on.'' Granddaughter, LPOA to her grandmother

Care Campaign for the Vulnerable is receiving a rise in correspondence coming to us from family members regarding issues concerning LPOA (Last Power of Attorney} If you are interested in this case study please contact us ccftv.cares@gmail.com