Making decisions : helping people who have difficulty deciding for themselves : a guide for social care professionals.

  • Great Britain. Lord Chancellor's Department.
Date:
2003
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Making decisions : helping people who have difficulty deciding for themselves : a guide for social care professionals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2. Defining and assessing mental incapacity Even with help and support, however, some people lack capacity to make some decisions and those decisions may need to be taken for them. An assessment must be made in each case, for each particular decision. For more serious or complicated decisions, a more formal assessment of capacity may be needed. Capacity is a legal concept. For a few.activities, such as competence to act as a witness in court, the legal test of capacity is set out in legislation. For others, such as making a will or drawing up an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA), the requirements to establish capacity have been set out in case law. The courts have decided that in many circumstances ‘capacity’ means being able to understand and retain relevant information and weigh it in the balance so that a choice can be made. Even if someone has a medical condition or disability, a person may have capacity to make some decisions but not others. For some people, for example those with dementia, the loss of ability to cope worsens over a long period of time, so the point at which they are no longer able to make a particular decision is hard to pinpoint. The mental Capacity of others, such as those with mental health problems, may fluctuate. In cases of fluctuating or temporary incapacity (as in any other case) the person’s capacity to make a particular decision must be assessed at the time the decision has to be made. It may be possible to put off the decision until such time as the person has recovered, and regained capacity to make their own decision. 5»