Frozen Out By Relatives – Where Do I Stand?

Many people in the UK have a relative who may be vulnerable or lacks the capacity to make decisions for themselves. Sometimes the onset of an illness such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, or the severity of other mental health conditions suffered by adults can leave them unable to decide where they should live, who they should see and who should be privy to information concerning their health.

Sometimes a protected party will have executed a Power of Attorney, appointing one or more people to make decisions for them, but this is not always the case.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that not all families get on well, and a protected party’s loss of capacity can lead to controlling behaviour and even relational aggression between their relations. This kind of behaviour can lead to all manner of problems not only for the affected relative but the protected party themselves. It is not always in a protected party’s best interests to be deprived of relationships with close relatives.

What can I do if I’m being deprived of contact with a protected party?

If you are on the receiving end of such behaviour, there are things that you can do to re-establish some measure of contact with a protected party, which include:

1. If the local authority is already involved with a protected party, a social worker will most likely have been assigned to them, and approaching the social worker is an essential step. That person may be able to mediate or assist you in re-establishing links with the protected party.
2. If the local authority is not involved and you consider that a protected party might be being abused by a controlling relation, reporting the situation to the vulnerable adults team is a starting point. The local authority may bring proceedings in the Court of Protection if they have concerns.
3. If neither of the above is helpful, you can start Court of Protection proceedings and seek an order from the Court that a protected party may have contact with you. This process is not always very quick, but the Court will consider all circumstances and if it finds that it is in the protected party’s best interests to have contact with you, the obstructive relative will be forced to cooperate, and this can be enforced by way of an injunction.
4. The Court can also make orders against a controlling relative to restrict their access to a protected party if it is strongly suspected that they are behaving in an overbearing or harmful manner.

It is sad to see a protected party’s loss of capacity leading to unpleasant behaviour and infighting amongst relatives, but it is not always down to malice. If the outlawed relative(s) have behaved in a harmful manner towards the protected party, this can sometimes justify protective measures being taken. When an attorney or someone with an interest in a protected party’s welfare suspects that the protected party may be vulnerable to abuse, the above steps can be taken to protect them from the perpetrator(s).

In more extreme cases, an emergency order can be sought and this is usually reserved for situations in which a protected party is being subjected to harm. However, whilst the Court of Protection has wide-ranging powers, it is not as adversarial in nature as most civil Courts, nor are its processes so rigid. Every interested party has the opportunity to have their say, and the Court will always have the protected party’s health, welfare and wellbeing at the forefront of its mind when making decisions. A protected party will usually be represented by a litigation friend and this can assist all parties to mediate and discuss solutions to problems that exist between the protected party’s relatives.