Appointment of Enduring Guardian

Appoint whilst you have Capacity

An Enduring Guardian is someone you appoint at a time when you have capacity to make personal health or lifestyle decisions on your behalf should you lose the capacity to make them for yourself. The appointment of an Enduring Guardian takes effect only if you lose the capacity to make your own decisions, you can appoint more than one Enduring Guardian if you wish.

You are able to choose the decision making areas you want your Enduring Guardian to have. These are called functions. You can give your Enduring Guardian as many or as few functions as you like for instance you are able to authorise your Enduring Guardian to decide such things where you may need to live, what medical treatment you should receive, you are able to appoint two Guardians jointly or severally or appoint different Guardians for different decision making functions.

An alternative to this approach is for people to prepare a separate Advance Care Directive or Advance Care Plan and to give directions to their Enduring Guardian in that document rather than Enduring Guardians or relatives.