Mental Capacity Act

Mental Capacity Act

Mental Capacity Act

What does the Act do?

* It aims to clarify a number of legal uncertainties.

* It reforms and updates the current law where decisions need to be made on behalf of others, incorporating good practice into statute and introducing a process.

* It sets out a single test for assessing capacity which is a 'decision specific test' (covering emergency decisions; day to day decisions and significant, but not urgent, decisions - including where there are a series of minor decisions which together become significant).

* It covers a wide range of decisions, on personal welfare (including health care) as well as financial matters and substitute decision-making by attorneys or court appointed 'deputies'. It also clarifies the position where no such formal process has been adopted.

* It includes new rules to govern research involving people who lack capacity and provides for new independent mental capacity advocates to represent and provide support to such people in relation to certain decisions.

* It provides recourse, where necessary and at the appropriate level, to a court with power to deal with all personal welfare (including health care) and financial decisions on behalf of adults who are lacking capacity.

* It replaces the current Court of Protection with a new Court of Protection which has more comprehensive powers.

What does the act mean?

* It puts in place a code of practice to give guidance about the legislation. The code must be followed by those working in a professional capacity (e.g. doctors and social workers).

* The Act offers appropriate protection for carers (both family members and unpaid carers), as well as health and social care professionals, to those who act in the reasonable belief that they are doing so in the person's 'best interests' when the principles of the Act are followed.

Mental Capacity Act

Background

The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) (2005) came into force in England and Wales in October 2007. This paper presents the findings from a qualitative interview study of staff perspectives on, and experiences of working with, the new MCA guidelines. The study took place in three palliative and three specialized neurological care centres run by a national charity and situated across England. The neurological centres are nurse-led, long-term residential care facilities. They support a wide range of service users with neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease and acquired brain injury, many of whom live at the centres for a number of years. The palliative care units predominately care for people with advanced cancer where service users can access day-care services, community specialist palliative care nurses and in-patient facilities for specialist palliative care and end-of-life care. Advance care planning (ACP) is carried out at all centres and the charity has undertaken the implementation of the MCA guidelines, generating related paperwork for documentation. This study accessed the views of staff working with the MCA, particularly in relation to ACP for care at the end of life (Thompson, ...