Want to set up lasting Powwer of Attorny.

No escalation would also cover situations like where initial treatments haven't worked and its now a choice between drastic intervention or palliative care. No escalation would cover going for palliative care in those situations

Would NOT want

& if someone was certain in advance that they wouldnt want invasive aggressive interventions then a ward only or community only notice would mean it would never need to get to the point of considering a living will etc.

Obviously not everyone is that certain and most of medicine is grey areas. But if someone is certain that they would want treatment but not ITU etc, then a no escalation notice is by far the better way to go about it

Yes it is useful in so much as it can help your POA or next of kin & medics figure out what you would have wanted.

But there is no benefit to paying a solicitor for it.

Although the Living Will is not a legal document it does have advantages as an addition to the POA.

Many people are in good health when they make the POA but it makes them think about the ‘what if’ situations. Hopefully there is a long time before it is needed. In that time people often see friends or relatives needing treatment and it helps to see the reality of choices.

It is also flexible and a very simple tool, allowing you to change your mind many times. Finally it eases the burden for relatives. As I said in my earlier post I have had to use this twice. It gave me an opportunity to speak to DH and my children about my own wishes .

If you wouldn't want intensive care treatment etc a living will is not the most effective (or cheapest) way to put that in place.

Go to your GP and get a "community treatment only" or "ward based treatment only, no escalation" (as per your preference) ^out of hours message" put on your file.

That way you would still have treatments like antibiotics etc, but not invasive life support.

Living wills are not legal documents.
The can be helpful and doctors will take them into account as much as possible in an "either/or" situation. But ultimately it is up to the medical team to decide what the options are, then the person, POA or best interest decision to decide whether to accept or decline those options. The living will can of course guide that decision and make it easier but it is not binding.

To those who did, and in case you didn't know, you can get part of your application fee back if you applied to register a power of attorney from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2017.

www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund

How can you get the attornies, witnesses etc to sign an online form? They opened it via the link and login, then printed the page that needed signing, got it witnessed and posted it to me.

With regard to the questions about “what you want” in certain circumstances. The best thing to do is to make a Living Will and put it in a sealed envelope with the PoA. That way your wishes are kept private until required.

My mother and step-father both made Living Wills. In both cases the Doctors were very understanding and sympathetic. It stopped my step-father going into ICU, when all he wanted was to die and join his wife. It allowed me to not have treatment for mother when she had a stroke.

You do t have to make the Living Will at the same time as the POA. Get that done and then think about it. It does take a lot longer for the POA to be done by the Solicitor and is much more expensive

Personally I would leave it to the medics & POA to docuss in light of the individual factors as and when they come up, because the success rate and recovery from Resuscitation varies HUGELY depending on the cause of the cardiac arrest.

A recovery from a drowning or a bleeding cardiac arrest, where the cause is fixable and one-off, is very different from recovery from an arrest from recurring pneumonia.

A cardiac arrest during certain procedures can be resuscitated relatively easily with shock alone, no broken ribs etc. Recovery is not much different from anyone else who has that procedure...

There is no way of covering all bases in advance IMO...

A note re Resuscitation: you can opt out but you can't opt in, i.e. you cannot insist that you DO get resuscitated. Like any invasive medical procedure medics cant be forced to do it if its not medically appropriate, but if they do deem it appropriate you can then decide not to consent to have it done.

If you definitely dont want it done, documenting it in your POA paperwork will NOT prevent it from being done. You need to also go to your GP, get a community AAND AND get it noted on the 999 "out of hours" system and keep a copy in a medic alert container in your fridge

As far as resuscitation goes, you can lodge an Advance Statement (sometimes called a living will) with your doctor and keep a copy yourself. Alzheimer's Society have templates on their website as, I think, do Ageuk.

Notanan, hopefully I will not need my LPA for a while yet by which time my grandkids will no longer be toddlers and my daughter will have time to help me.

Alygran thank you!

Or contact the Office of the Public Guardian by phone. They are very helpful.

Just googled it.

You need to go to the .gov site
www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/change-your-lasting-power-of-attorney

Hope the link works

Does anyone know how to change a POA to another person?

If you need to be resuscitated, should the doctors or your daughter make that decision?” Sitting alone on my computer, I did not know if my daughter wanted that responsibility. She does not live nearby and is very busy with work and kids. It is hard for us to sit down together and fill in the forms.

How will it work with her being POA then?

You need to print it off and post it, I think.

Question to the Grans who have done their LPA on line. How can you get the attornies, witnesses etc to sign an online form?

We have recently done ours online, for both finances and health and welfare.

Re the 'do not resuscitate' question, there is a space for you to add your own wishes as regards H and W, which will serve as guidance for your attorney.

Mine was extremely specific as to what I would or would not want, in the case of my being unable to both speak (with mental capacity) for myself and care for myself.

E.g. in the case of dementia or a disabling stroke, I emphatically do not want interventions to prolong my life - I ask for palliative care only.
Dh has used the same wording.

I dare say we have been influenced by many years of two parents with dementia, one of whom had it for around 15 years and was in a most pitiful state when she finally died at 97.
Also, re DNR, a neighbour who was resuscitated after a 2nd or 3rd heart attack, told me he wished they'd just let him die, since the after effects (cracked ribs etc.) were so,painful. He did in fact die anyway a few months later.

I did it on line with my children. So we discussed it as we went along.

There are two versions of LPA. One is about health and the other about money, and you really need both.

The guide is as helpful as any solicitor could be. A solicitor will charge a few hundred £s to fill in the forms in addition to the registration charges stated.

www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney

If you fill it in as you think and save it, you can then send your daughter the link and tell her your login info so she can have a look and a think about it in her own time.