Mental Capacity Act (MCA) Directory

This booklet has been designed as part of project about bipolar disorder. It covers the Mental Capacity Act; advance decisions to refuse treatment; statements of wishes and feelings; lasting power of attorney; and tips for managing everyday finances.

Signposts to resources and guidance relating to the Mental Capacity Act.

The guide provides practical assistance to anyone who supports an individual to make decisions about their finances. It covers the legislation that governs financial decision-making and makes practical suggestions about how to: empower and support an individual with making decisions about their finances; assess an individual’s capacity in relation to financial decision-making in a way which is decision-specific; apply the Mental Capacity Act to an individual’s situation; and enable decision making by individuals wherever possible.

Advocacy helps to ensure that individuals are in control of their own lives and are supported to make their own decisions. This good practice guide has been developed to help professionals and advocates to decide on the most appropriate route to take to challenge decisions about an individual's care. It will help advocates to develop a ‘tool-kit’ of different approaches to get the best possible outcome for people depending on their views and the situation. The guide discusses when it is most appropriate to use informal approaches to challenge decisions; the skills required to be effective when taking this approach,...

This Guidance aims to demystify the Court of Protection generally and the role of litigation friend specifically so as to enable more people to consider taking up the role – thereby ensuring the better promotion and protection of the rights of those said to be lacking capacity to take their own decisions.

Although the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) has implications for other aspects of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), this article focuses on the possible relevance of the MCA in the management of the over-eating behaviour and risk of life-threatening obesity associated with the syndrome. Although people with PWS are capable of making decisions about many areas of their life, dysfunction in areas of the brain that control eating behaviour and energy balance means that they will rarely have the capacity independently to make decisions about eating. Even if they can make a decision at one point in time, this may not be the...

A brief review of the Compassion in Dying advance decisions form (plus accompanying guidance notes) and the Alzheimer’s Society form.

These materials have been created to help support health and social care professionals working with individuals whose decision-making capacity is limited, fluctuating, absent or compromised. Demographic changes mean there are increasing numbers of people living with conditions which may impact on their decision-making capacity, and as such it is vital that professionals are confident in their understanding use of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This tool brings together information from a range of professionals working in the field of mental capacity to provide a comprehensive guide to practice. It is part of a wider research project funded by the Burdett...

This blog contains information on policing, mental health and criminal justice. Key thematic areas include: Tactical Advisors on mental health; quick guides – a series of legal and practical summaries for operational police officers about the most important scenarios that emerge under the mental health and capacity acts; policing and crime act series; paramedic series; and a series of posts written with non-police officers in mind providing guidance to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of social work professional evidence in mental capacity law, specifically Court of Protection proceedings. The authors analyse how social workers perform as evidence givers in this domain and how social work as a profession is perceived alongside other professions within the context of adult social care decision-making in mental capacity law. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on textual evidence from judgments and existing empirical data published elsewhere. The authors consider the contribution of social work professional expertise to best interests decision-making in formal legal proceedings which, in turn, reflects on...

Objective: To investigate how people with communication and understanding difficulties, associated with conditions such as dementia, autism and intellectual disability, are represented in research guidance supplementary to the Mental Capacity Act (MCA: 2005) in England and Wales. Methods: A documentary survey was conducted. The sample comprised the MCA Code of Practice (CoP: 2007) and 14 multi‐authored advisory documents that were publicly available on the Health Research Authority website. Textual review of key words was conducted followed by summative content analysis. Results: Representation of people with communication and understanding difficulties was confined to procedural information and position statements that focused mainly...

With a growing global ageing population, approaches to assess and support decision-making are becoming more pertinent. This scoping review aimed to identify and map current knowledge on assessment of older adults' decision-making capacity in relation to independent living. A five-stage scoping review framework was followed. Inclusion criteria were papers on assessment approaches used to evaluate decision-making capacity of older adults, aged 60 years and over for independent living, including studies involving people with cognitive impairment and dementia. Five databases were searched for publications with eligibility criteria from January 2000 to December 2020; 4,118 results were retrieved from sources, resulting in...