Have you ever wanted to make a real difference in healthcare, particularly in palliative and end-of-life care? Now is your opportunity to influence the future of care by sharing your experiences and insights. The newly established Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care is actively seeking input from individuals who have firsthand experience with palliative care—whether as a patient, caregiver, or healthcare professional. Your voice could help shape the future of care, ensuring it is compassionate, effective, and accessible for all.

I often use blogs to share questions I have been asked relating to Advance Care Planning of Lasting Power of Attorney. This week’s blog is in relation to a recent question from a previous colleague: how can I find out of someone has a Lasting Power of Attorney? Many thanks for submitting and read on for answer.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is an important legal document that enables you to nominate a person or people to support you to make decisions, or to make decisions on your behalf if you ever lose capacity to do so yourself.

While making an LPA may seem like a daunting expense, there are ways to manage costs effectively, and in some cases, you might not need to pay anything at all.

Here’s everything you need to know about the costs associated with an LPA and how you can save money.

If I Get Dementia, Will I Be Served Meat?

“How do I ensure my dietary choices and values are respected, especially when I may not be able to advocate for myself in the future?”

With Advance Care Planning in mind, what happens when maintaining a plant-based lifestyle becomes difficult, even impossible, due to life circumstances like illness or ageing? It’s a question I addressed with Amanda Woodvine, CEO of Vegetarian for Life in a podcast, and as we enter Veganuary 2025, it feels a good time to highlight this episode from the archives.

As we approach the New Year, it’s an ideal time to reflect and prepare for the future—not just with goals and resolutions but by safeguarding your values and ensuring peace of mind for yourself and your loved ones. Advance Care Planning encompasses several essential steps that ensure your preferences are respected and provide clarity during challenging times.

“My Lasting Power of Attorney has just been registered and I have received an official letter from the OPG; my attorney has received a letter too but the replacement attorney has not – why not and is there a problem?”

Read on to find out more….

Does anyone remember the Motherland episode where Amanda’s infamous shop Hygge Tygge, goes live? Well, there’s not a lot I have in common with Amanda, but I connect with the feeling of a new venture going live.

Say hello to the new Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) online-shop and gift vouchers available at the Speak for Me on-line shop . No mood lighting, no faux-Nordic branding—just the gift of peace of mind.

Yes, you can now give the ultimate gift this festive season—security, protection, and clarity for the ones you love.

In this blog Nichola, LPA Associate and Project Manager, shares personal experience and tips when creating a Lasting Power of Attorney. Thank you Nichola for describing your reflections which I know will resonate with many.

My thanks to Sarah Malik for writing this blog exploring Compassion in Dying’s[i] new report: Rethinking the UK’s approach to dying. Sarah sets out why the report was created, what the results were and shares why it is so important to make plans from conversations.

[1] The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness of how we currently use existing legislation to exercise choice at the end of life. Publishing the blog is not an endorsement of work by Dignity in Dying.

My thanks to Rachel for writing about her experience of Advance Care Planning. Rachel attended the Advance Care Planning Conference held in May this year and was inspired to take action following the event. It was my pleasure to work with Rachel and explore what was needed for own Advance Care Planning and to create a plan right for this stage of her life.

In this blog I am proud to share the bespoke Advance Care Planning service I offer. Based on the principles of Getting Your House in Order, I work with clients exploring all elements of Advance Care Planning to create a unique and personalised document.

I was honoured to publish a blog about sharing your work through podcasts in September. It was a reflective piece to write and a great reminder of the incredible body of Advance Care Planning work that has been created through the podcast and of the fabulous guests I have spoken with.

Working as a Lasting Power of Attorney Consultant I am often asked how long it takes to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney. In this blog, stages involved in setting up an LPA, from the initial considerations to the final registration will be explained and I will set out how long it takes working with a client to create a Lasting Power of Attorney through Speak For Me LPA.

This blog explores bankruptcy, the Individual Insolvency Register and how these impact on Lasting Power of Attorney.  The specific question, can you be an attorney for Lasting Power of Attorney if you are on the insolvency register? will be answered and is in response to questions I have been asked.

Questions about Activation Codes remain one of the most common questions I receive. This short blog adds to the resource I have created already to explaining what Activation Codes are, how to obtain them what you need to know to view a Lasting Power of Attorney electronically. The specific question I will address in this blog answers the question; “how do I get a new Activation Key for a Lasting Power of Attorney?”

In May this year I was part of a rather ambitions, highly passionate and incredible team of people bringing together the UK’s first Advance Care Planning Day, an Advance Care Planning Conference and a UK Book Tour with authors of the bestselling book Hope for the Best Plan for the Rest.

This blog looks back on all of the events with comments from people involved. It begins by providing feedback from the Conference, ACP Day and UK Book Tour before listing resource you can access from all of the events. The blog closes with setting the path 2025 and an invitation to get in touch if you would like to be involved with future Advance Care Planning events.

On 15.12.2021 I released my first podcast with an aim to improve professional understanding, raise public awareness and normalise conversations about Advance Care Planning. Fast forward to July 2024 and one hundred episodes have been released, each focusing on a different element of Advance Care Planning. This blog celebrates those 100 episodes, the fabulous guests I have spoken with and groups the podcasts by theme.

It is always interesting to hear from other people and learn from experiences of either creating or using a Lasting Power of Attorney. An issue I have not covered before is gifting on behalf of another person when acting as their Court appointed deputy. In this blog I am grateful to Alex (an anonymised name) for sharing their experience.

Alex describes how they came to act as a deputy for their Mother, the lack of guidance they had when stepping into the role and the challenges they experienced when gifting on behalf of their Mother.

I am most grateful to Alex for sharing their experience and raising awareness about this often little understood element of deputyship. 

 

Many assumptions are used when we talk about Advance Care Planning, too often assumptions are made about the presence of children or family members available step into a caring role.

In this guest blog by Penny Shepherd, find out why this is becoming an increasing challenge to society and about what help and support is available to people who are ageing without children.

Thank you Penny.

In a recent article Dame Esther outlines her support for Assisted Dying.

My concern is that we may rush into legalizing Assisted Dying without first addressing opportunities to improve understanding and implement existing measures which can alleviate the fear of losing control over our end of life wishes.

In response to Dame Esther’s article, I aim to highlight some common fears and share practical steps we can take now to gain a sense of control over our end of life decisions.