Parent possibly in early stage of dementia - too late for power of attorney?

LegacyUser

hi,

My father has been in a nursing home with the last 6 months, following a severe stroke.

For the first 3 months after the stroke, he seemed quite compus mentus and the effects appeared to be mainly physical - he has been left paralysed on one side & is in a wheelchair.

Since September/October, there has been a steady decline in his mental capacity in my & my siblings opinion. The nurses in the home say it is probably down to medication, but having gotten a list of what medicines he is on, they don't appear to have changed much since he got the stroke. The one difference is that he is on warfarin since October.

He now appears to have little grasp a lot of the time on what is happening/going on in the world, and I'm starting to wonder if it is dementia. His doctor doesn't seem to think so, as when they did a test on numbers, addresses, people etc. Dad knows all of that. The problem is that he seems unaware of where he is &/or that he has had a stroke, and he also believes that he has been places on holidays, and that he 'was out for a grand walk' yesterday type of thing. We had him out for Christmas day & he seemed to have no grasp that it was Christmas.
This is most distressing for visitors rather than for him, as to be honest he seems quite content most of the time & he is well looked after.
What I'm wondering about now is this - is it too late for my sister to now be appointed power of attorney? There are a few things that do need to get sorted out - my father's van for one thing - and with him having no idea that he won't be driving again, then we (his children) think it would be better to sell it now rather than leave it to rust.
There are other issues aswell such as his house & keeping bills paid etc.

Dad never asks about bills or how the house is etc.

If it is too late for anyone to be appointed power of attorney, what can we do? If we make him a ward of court, who then looks after things/makes decisions on his behalf?

I assure you 100% that we certainly do not want to gain anything out of his possessions for ourselves, but it is getting more & more difficult to pay the nursing home bills & household bills. We can't sell the car ourselves as it is in his name.

Anyone been in this situation, what are our options?
thanks.

LilMrsDahamsta

As far as I know, there is a specialist group of solicitors in Ireland who have specific training and qualifications in dealing with this sort of issue. Unfortunately, despite a lot of googling, I can't for the life of me remember the name of the qualification - it was something I only heard about in conversation ages ago. Perhaps you could contact the Law Society and ask them for a list of practitioners specialising in the area of consent in dementia.

sam34

What you need to do is speak to a solicitor. Your father may or may not have the mental capacity to make that decision ie to nominate someone as his enduring power of attorney. When there is doubt over whether someone has capacity their solicitor usually asks for a medical opinion to judge that, usually from a psychiatrist. If he has the capacity to make the decision then he nominates your sister or whoever he wants. If he does not have the ability to decide than it means you can't get enduring power of attorney for him.

Ward of court applications take a long time to process in the courts, about 9 months.

Start the ball rolling with a solicitor and a medical assessment.

metrovelvet

I got power of attorney when my dad was sick and obviously demented but not technically demented as he wasnt diagnosed [but he in reality very much was demented] and it didnt take that long and I think it was done through the hospital.

Jenneke87

Get him tested first. Sometimes, the side effects of medication do not become evident unless used for an extented period of time. There are a number of tests to see whether he has dementia or not and what type(as there are serval)