The Mental Capacity Act in practice.
The Mental Capacity Act is designed to empower a person’s voice, protect their rights and provide safeguarding measures, alongside direction of practice, if a person is determined to lack capacity for a particular decision at a certain time. In this blog, we explore the role of the Mental Capacity Act around future decisions relating to healthcare, finance and assigning an LPA.
When does care become a deprivation for a young person under 18 years of age? When is care ‘necessary’ and how do we define what counts as ‘necessary’? Are a young person’s right so different from that of an adult? These are all questions that some of us wrestle with on an almost daily basis – and yet at the same time, it is evident that in some cases, these questions are not given the attention that they deserve.
This year has seen several quite significant updates in healthcare legislation, with several important changes for the way we treat and care for patients. While these are not all related to the Mental Capacity Act directly, it’s important that we take note of the changes and how they affect our day-to-day work.
Values are essential to help us establish a moral outlook and focus within our everyday practices – without which we lose our sense of identity and purpose.
Here at Mental Capacity Ltd, we have identified three core values to guide us in our mission: Promote, Partner and Protect.
In our last blog, we outlined some of the key differences between Next of Kin (NOK) and Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). In this follow-up blog, we will explore a few recent examples of misuse of LPA, and lessons we can learn going forward.
According to UK consumer rights organisation Which?, the Power of Attorney system is in ‘desperate need of improvement’. This is because many people don’t understand how the system works, and it can also be difficult to put vital Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) arrangements in place.
In our last blog, we considered the complex case of ‘P’ – an individual being assessed for mental capacity with respect to their change in accommodation, as well as their wish to take responsibility for managing their inheritance.
The case study highlighted several major issues in the way the original mental capacity assessment had been completed, including concerns around the lack of support to help P communicate autonomously, and the lack of documentation around P’s condition and capacity.
In this blog, we will work through an example mental capacity assessment for an individual making a complex decision. This case study is based on a real-life example reviewed in the wake of the Covid pandemic. At each stage we will present the information as it was presented to us, followed by specific comment relating to the assessment process and steps that could and in some cases should have been taken to improve the quality of outcomes.
When assessing someone for their capacity to make a specific decision, it is important that they are able to demonstrate that they can sufficiently ‘weigh up’ the decision and so form a reasoned judgement – whether we agree with their final decision or not.
When it comes to Mental Capacity Assessments, ‘retention’ refers to an individual’s ability to recollect relevant information relating to a specific decision. However, in assessing for retention, it is also important to take into account the second principle of the Mental Capacity Act, which states that we should actively support capacity wherever possible. Therefore, as assessors, we should provide sufficient support to enable retention where possible – be it through labelled items, social stories, easy read guides or so on.