Mental health crisis?
Mental health is not always
taken as seriously as it should and the term crisis is unfortunately correctly used.
However there
is way to assist from a legal perspective should an individual suffer from short or long term mental illness. It will be necessary to prepare lasting powers of attorney whilst they are well.
If an individual lacks capacity to make a financial
decision then it may be necessary for an application to be made to the Court of Protection for an appropriate order, such as appointing another person to make decisions on their behalf. This is both costly and time consuming.
An LPA is a legal document that allows an
individual to voluntarily appoint someone they trust to make decisions and act on their behalf should they lose mental capacity.
An individual can appoint person/(s) to make decisions for the following matters:
(a) Personal welfare matters: cover decisions relating to care and lifestyle needs, etc.
(b) Property and affairs matters: cover decisions relating to bank accounts, insurance, property and other assets.
Most care and treatment decisions can be made on LPAs are essential in situations where the individual has a second marriage and there children from a former marriage (unless everyone gets along) or where there are family disputes. It is vitally important for an individual to appoint an attorney to prevent family dispute over their care and welfare.
without the need for a court application, but social services are now asking for an LPA as a matter of course.
The term crisis has been used so frequently about mental health services of late that it would be easy to brush off her use of it as a headline-grabbing exercise. However there’s no shortage of service users who would attest that, in light of ongoing cuts, beds shortages and evidence that welfare reforms are triggering or exacerbating people’s mental health problems on an unprecedented scale, this time it’s different.
A very significant development is the programme of welfare reforms introduced by Iain Duncan Smith, the secretary of state for work and pensions, says Berger. A recent report from the charity, Mind, found that the Work Programme and the rising threat of sanctions was making people’s mental distress much worse.”
