Pathways Through Dementia Blog

The Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice is an excellent and user friendly resource for people navigating their way through decision making, whether they are a person with dementia or someone who is caring for them: Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The guidance advises professionals to first of all involve the Read More

Due to the fact that relatively few people create an Advance Decision (AD) there is little case law to illustrate how the law would work if an attorney for Health and Care disagreed with the wording of an AD. What I have been advised is that were there to be a clash between the wording Read More

Advance Decisions (AD) used to be more commonly known as 'Living Wills'. They were given the strength of statue law through the Mental Capacity Act 2005. These are documents we should all consider drawing up to ensure that we do not receive life prolonging treatment that fundamentally we would not wish to receive. For example, Read More

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is responsible for investigating allegations of attorneys abusing their position of trust whether that is in relation to finances, property, and/or health and welfare. Financial abuse is the most common form of abuse of vulnerable adults and we hear accusations of such quite frequently, sadly. The OPG does Read More

When I first started working with people living with dementia it was not unusual for me to walk into support groups to give a talk and be the bearer of the ‘news’ that people with dementia tended to pay for their own care. Nowadays most people know that people with dementia are means tested for Read More

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 talks about choosing the 'least restrictive' option for vulnerable adults in a situation where the adult cannot make their own decision. For example care at home may be considered 'less restrictive' than a care home. It is important to think about various factors however, and weigh up the pros and Read More

Mental capacity is task specific so someone may have capacity to make a decision about one area of their life but not another. People often call Pathways Through Dementia to find out how exactly we assess someone's capacity: the legal test for capacity involves passing all of the following 4 steps,  someone has to be Read More

People often contact us with questions about equity release which we are not qualified to talk about but see below for a reputable advisor who will be happy to explore your options with you. What we can say is that people ought not to feel forced to seek equity release to pay for care: a Read More

Under the Care Act, local authorities are able to request information relating to a person’s income, savings and assets if there is a possibility that the local authority will need to pay for their care. Homecare charges need to be ‘reasonable’ – taking into consideration the person’s income, savings and day to day expenses. Local Read More

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 lays out the legal test for capacity which is usually applied to people living with dementia when an important or serious decision has to be made. Someone is deemed to have mental capacity as long as they can pass all 4 steps of the test...can they Understand the information relevant Read More