Is it a good idea to have a Health Care Proxy and/or Power of Attorney drafted?
Hello, everyone, and welcome back! This video will talk about the Baker Act and how a healthcare proxy and a power of attorney can help you.
I have talked in other videos about the healthcare proxy and a power of attorney. I’ve had people call me up and say they have a health care proxy or a power of attorney, yet their loved one has been baker acted, and the facility was ignoring them. And I say, they’re ignoring them, and they’re going to continue to ignore them. They do that because the facility is empowered and acts as an agent of the state of Florida. It doesn’t care about your documents and who drew them up. Whether it was a lawyer or you’d use a legal zoom or whoever it was. Whether you just did them yourself, they don’t care. However, they can be very useful tools. First of all, if your loved one gets taken to a hospital, it gives some direction as to what types of medical care you can consent to.
What kind of authority you’ve been given when it comes to the baker act? Specifically, even though the facility will ignore it or the documents you have, it gives us grounds to go into court and tell the judge that their loved one has been baker acted. They have given their significant other, their parents, their spouse the authority to make medical decisions for them, and the state of Florida is ignoring it. In addition to the other claims that we can make in terms of statutory and constant constitutional violations of the baker act, this just gives you one other potential or one other source of leverage over the facility. And so when I write a demand letter to the facility and a copy of the petition, I say you need to pay attention to this. These are really important documents to have, and you should have them anyway.
We’re living in unusual times with COVID 19, and God forbid one gets sick; we want to make sure that there’s somebody to make the decision for your loved one. We don’t want you or your loved one to become incapacitated. The State of Florida will make them for you, and they may not be the decisions you want.
With that said, reach out to us; my partner Audra is a fabulous lawyer. She can take care of those documents for you. They’re normally drafted pretty quickly with relative ease. It’s a great question that was asked to me. Health care proxy and power of attorney, make sure you get them done. See you in the next video. Thank you!