Morals? What morals?

Jeremy Hunt no - this column won't contain any politically motivated comments about junior doctors - has announced that
the government's aim is for the UK
to become the world's most 'dementia-friendly' country by 2020. As part of this, people aged over 40 in England will be given more information about dementia to help improve early diagnosis of the condition. They will, for example, be told when they should report memory problems to their GP.

I am all for a more dementia friendly society. The plans include making information about the condition more readily available to all of us, informing people about how to maintain their health for as long as possible, and guidance on how to interact with people who already have
a dementia related illness.

What I am less sure about is how this 'friendliness' will be put in to practice on a day to day level. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but the cynic in me notes that many excellent things were said about care provision not so long ago, and there's not much positive to report about that.

As well as feeling a tad cynical about this latest announcement from our health secretary, I have found myself losing faith in the goodness of people generally this past month. I know, my view is likely skewed as people often only come for legal advice when problems arise, but I do wish money didn't make people behave so badly.

A client of mine who has Alzheimer's and who prepared an LPA in favour of her daughter and grand-daughter, was surprised to find her daughter had obtained a valuation of her house and made an offer to buy another property - using my client's money - for the daughter and her husband to live in.

I had other clients who were horrified to learn that their terminally ill father, who was suffering from dementia, made a will just before he died, appointing a person he disliked as executor. The executor is currently refusing to share the contents of the will with my clients, which is causing a lot of anguish (the funeral hasn't even been held yet).

How can we aim to be the most dementia-friendly country in the world when there are people who see the vulnerable as a resource to be taken advantage of, and who so often find that there are no long-term consequences for their actions?

The case involving the new and out of character will is likely to take some time to resolve. The LPA matter has, however, been easier to put right for my client. However there was a suggestion raised by her daughter that my client lacked the capacity to revoke the LPA due to her Alzheimer's.

Remember, revocation of an LPA requires the preparation of a deed - there is no automatic revocation of an earlier LPA by granting a subsequent one. Notice of the revocation also needs to be served on the public guardian and the attorneys. To revoke an LPA, the donor needs to understand:

• Who the attorney is, or who the attorneys are and, if more than one, whether they are appointed to act jointly or jointly and severally;

• What authority they have;

• Why it is necessary or expedient to revoke the power; and

• The foreseeable consequences of revoking the power.

Given that my client was perfectly able to express her opinion on the attempt by her daughter to sell her home out from under her, and to use the proceeds other than in my client's best interests; this wasn't an argument that took long to win.

Once a registered LPA is revoked, it will be removed from the OPG's register and the original document will be marked as 'cancelled'. There is no reason why a revocation can't be dealt with alongside the preparation and registration of a new LPA - and given that the registration can take a number of weeks, this is often the most time effective way of moving forward. 

Sofia Tayton is a partner and head of care and capacity at Lodders Solicitors

She writes the regular in-practice article on care and capacity for Private Client Adviser