General Visitor and Decision-making Representative

Following an acquired brain injury, Paula’s husband Ian was appointed decision-making representative for her property and affairs decisions.

As decision-making representative for property and affairs decisions, Ian is required to submit a schedule of Paula’s assets and liabilities to the Decision Support Service, and a projected statement of her income and expenditure. He did this within three months of his appointment. However, Ian failed to submit a report 12 months after his appointment. The Decision Support Service contacted Ian, reminding him that submitting an annual report to the Decision Support Service is a duty of a decision-making representative, and granted him a further 28 days to submit it. Once again, Ian failed to submit a report.

The Decision Support Service instructs a general visitor, selected from the Decision Support Service’s panel, to visit Ian to find out why he has not submitted a report. A letter is sent out from the Decision Support Service, informing Ian and Paula of the general visitor’s upcoming visit.

The general visitor visits Ian and Paula’s house. They first speak with Ian, who does not welcome their visit. When they ask him why he had failed to submit the report on two occasions, he responds rudely that he does not have time to fill in more reports and paperwork. After speaking with him for a while, the general visitor learns that Ian is feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to manage Paula’s estate, as well as running the family business, and looking after Paula by himself. He tells the general visitor that he wants to get someone to help look after Paula, but he has not got around to it yet.

Following their visit, the general visitor submits a report to the Decision Support. In it, they include all the information learned from Ian during their visit, including the reasons why he failed to submit his annual report. The general visitor also includes that during the visit, Ian introduced them to Paula, and that Paula seemed happy and comfortable in her home and appeared to be very well looked after by her husband.

Comment: This vignette is an example of a situation where the Decision Support Service may ask a general visitor to assist them in the performance of their functions. This example shows an investigation being carried out in response to a decision-making supporter’s failure to submit an annual report to the Decision Support Service.