DoLS - I'm confused! | Dementia Support Forum

It seems likely that one's experience of DoLS is dependent upon a number of factors, such as whether one has Power of Attorney, to what extent the person being assessed can sustain the appearance of 'normality', the experience and attitude of the assessors, and the time lag between first application for DoLS and completion of the process. From my limited exposure it isn't always stressful or a bad experience. In fact I would echo what @Beate has said above.

I did not find the process adversarial in any way. This may have been helped by the fact that the staff in the respite unit quickly identified that my wife's talk about "walking home" was a risk that need to be managed, thereby triggering the DoLS process.

In my local authority the delay is nothing like what has been reported in other areas. The first application was made when my wife was in respite in October 2018 and the authorisation was granted by December. When she moved into residential care in mid-May the original authorisation for the respite unit was terminated. A new authorisation was granted for the care home in which she now lives within 5 weeks of her moving in.

The Best Interests Assessors that I dealt with had clearly done a thorough job of assessing my wife's limited abilities and this was borne out by the Medical Assessors' reports. Although if asked my wife would still say that she would rather be at 'home' (whatever she might think of as home), as @Sarasa says, what she thinks she wants is different to what she needs. Hence I have no problem in representing and protecting her interests in my role as Relevant Person's Representative.

I found the written assessments to be helpful, both in terms of confirming my own thoughts about my wife's sadly declining grip on reality and also in the more practical sense that I adopted some of the wording when making a successful claim for higher rate Attendance Allowance.

I hope that this is helpful.