This leaflet clarifies how people can plan ways, with their families, to ensure their wishes are taken into account if through illness they cannot take decisions for themselves.

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.

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

This factsheet explains what an advance decision is, what it can and cannot be used for, and how to make one.

This practical guide includes information to understand how treatment and care decisions are made, how individuals can plan ahead to ensure they stay in control of these decisions, and who to talk to and share their wishes with.

This booklet supports individuals to talk about their wishes for care and treatment with their family, friends and doctor.

The Mental Capacity Act requires that where a person (P) lacks capacity to make a decision her wishes and feelings be taken into account when deciding what is in her best interests. This article considers how the Court of Protection evaluates evidence from P concerning her wishes and feelings. It finds that the Court ignores evidence regarding current wishes and fails to engage with more ambiguous evidence where P desires conflicting outcomes or may be concealing her true feelings. This is unhelpful since it makes the resulting judgment unconvincing to observers. It is legally problematic, since the Court should be following the practices of other decision-makers under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). And it is ethically problematic since it undermines P’s dignity and does not treat P as an actor whose evidence regarding her wishes and feelings has intrinsic status which the Court must make active efforts to engage with or discount rather than ignore.

Background: The use of advance care planning and advance decisions for psychiatric care is growing. However, there is limited guidance on clinical management when a patient presents with suicidal behaviour and an advance decision and no systematic reviews of the extant literature. Objectives: To synthesise existing literature on the management of advance decisions and suicidal behaviour. Design: A systematic search of seven bibliographic databases was conducted to identify studies relating to advance decisions and suicidal behaviour. Studies on terminal illness or end-of-life care were excluded to focus on the use of advance decisions in the context of suicidal behaviour. A textual synthesis of data was conducted, and themes were identified by using an adapted thematic framework analysis approach. Results: Overall 634 articles were identified, of which 35 were retained for full text screening. Fifteen relevant articles were identified following screening. Those articles pertained to actual clinical cases or fictional scenarios. Clinical practice and rationale for management decisions varied. Five themes were identified: (1) tension between patient autonomy and protecting a vulnerable person, (2) appropriateness of advance decisions for suicidal behaviour, (3) uncertainty about the application of legislation, (4) the length of time needed to consider all the evidence versus rapid decision-making for treatment and (5) importance of seeking support and sharing decision-making. Conclusions: Advance decisions present particular challenges for clinicians when associated with suicidal behaviour. Recommendations for practice and supervision for clinicians may help to reduce the variation in clinical practice.

This document contains the advance decision to refuse treatment form – the form sets out the situations in which individuals want to refuse medical treatment if they are unable to make or communicate that decision in the future; and guidance notes – this gives information to help people complete the form. The notes explain when an advance decision would be used and offers support to consider the wishes.

This factsheet provides essential information on advance decision, lasting power of attorney for health and welfare, and capacity.

The film looks at the five key principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), and how these can be applied to the care planning process.

Webinar focuses on the application of the Mental Capacity Act to decisions around the initiation of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, along with practices concerning DNACPR.