Celia Kitzinger, 5th December 2022 This is the fifth Court of Protection case I’ve observed about someone with hoarding disorder. (Take a look at my previous blog post: “A case of hoarding” which describes plans to return a person home with safeguards in place to keep her safe.) The woman at the centre of the case I’mContinue reading “Hoarding disorder, dementia and a wish to return home”
Tag Archives: Section 21A
When wishes and feelings change: A s.21A case but the applicant is now happy with where she lives
By Joanna Booth, 16 November 2022 The case I observed on 10 November 2022 (COP 13966522) was heard before Deputy District Judge Sophy Miles. A woman, SB, is in a care home waiting for dementia and occupational therapy assessment. Her age was not mentioned. She’s been deprived of her liberty since 27 February 2020. When first visitedContinue reading “When wishes and feelings change: A s.21A case but the applicant is now happy with where she lives”
Improving P’s quality of life pending a s.21A change in residence
By Celia Kitzinger, 28th October 2022 The person at the centre of the case (I’ll call him “Peter”) is a 71-year-old man who is held against his will in a care home that is not meeting his needs. It’s a Section 21A deprivation of liberty case (COP 13825795) before Her Honour Judge Buckingham, sitting (remotely) onContinue reading “Improving P’s quality of life pending a s.21A change in residence”
Resisting Care: An unsuccessful s.21A challenge from a ‘feisty’ 94-year-old
By Celia Kitzinger, 19 June 2022 It was a week after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations (this becomes relevant later!) and District Judge Searl was making a decision about a 94-year-old woman (“Hattie”) who lives in a care home but wants to return to her own home. The law It was a challenge under s.21A ofContinue reading “Resisting Care: An unsuccessful s.21A challenge from a ‘feisty’ 94-year-old”
When family members apply to become parties: A hidden and “private” (but not sinister and secret) hearing
Many people who contact the Open Justice Court of Protection Project believe that the court is deliberately obstructive of open justice. I understand why it can feel like that.
It really isn’t the case that the lists are deliberately designed to discourage us from observing hearings. It’s just that – very often – they have that effect. Having attended this hidden and “private” hearing, I can’t detect any reason why anyone would have sought to exclude me: there was nothing ‘secret’ or ‘sinister’ about it at all.
A section 21A hearing: Impressions from a veteran observer and the daughter of (a different) P in a s.21A case
By Celia Kitzinger and Anna (Daughter of P), 9th May 2022 Anna (not her real name) contacted the Open Justice Court of Protection Project towards the end of April 2022, saying that she’d been asked to attend a s. 21A directions hearing about her mother (in a care home, with Alzheimer’s) and was finding the Court ofContinue reading “A section 21A hearing: Impressions from a veteran observer and the daughter of (a different) P in a s.21A case”
Communicating bad news: A s.21A decision
By Celia Kitzinger, 1 March 2022 Ms C says she hates where she lives – in a residential care home (I’ll call it“Beech House”). She has said so “loudly”. She expressed her “strongly held feelings” directly to the judge when he met with her on 25th January 2022. Throughout that meeting she maintained, in strong terms, thatContinue reading “Communicating bad news: A s.21A decision”
Delay in finding a suitable placement for a young adult with Prader-Willi syndrome
By Aura Mackintosh Bamber, 22 February 2022 For any child’s family, a diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome brings with it a number of responsibilities and worries that are involved in properly caring for and managing this complex disorder. These worries are only exacerbated when a decision is made to deprive that child of their liberty inContinue reading “Delay in finding a suitable placement for a young adult with Prader-Willi syndrome”
Prader-Willi Syndrome and Transparency
A young man with Prader-Willi Syndrome was at the centre of a hearing before Theis J. I can only tell you this because journalist Brian Farmer and I made submissions to the judge saying that we should be allowed to report it and she eventually agreed.
Untenable and unsafe: A trial of living in the community breaks down
So, Mr G will return to the safety of residential care, where he will no doubt continue to rage against his incarceration, but there will be a suitable infrastructure to help him manage his precarious health condition. The question one is left with, of course, is, as Munby J famously said: “What good is making someone safer if it merely makes them miserable?”
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 