Family and carers | Family and carers should be involved in decision making in patients with cognitive impairment | A GP stated: |
‘If we’re referring to patients with advanced cognitive impairment … it’s obvious that the decision should be taken with the carers, those close to the patient, their family …’ 56 |
The wishes of family and carers may be at odds with the wishes of the patient | A GP stated: |
‘A 50-year-old who says to you “If I’m ever in that position, let me go, don’t insist, let me die or help me to die”, but when they [the family] face that situation [later in life], if the smallest door of hope opens, they [the family] take it; it’s normal.’ 56 |
What level of responsibility should be taken by the family or carers? | ‘Uncertainty extended to knowing how much, or how little, they [the family] were to be involved in the clinical investigations consent process of their relative with dementia and what level of responsibility — if any — they shouldered in taking such a decision.’ 63 |