The mental capacity act assessment plays an important role in the clinician’s role. The mental capacity acts to protect people who lack the mental capacity to make a decision. The primary purpose of this act is assessing the doctor’s and patients’ capacity to make a decision. The mental capacity act is accompanied by the code of practice. The act provides a framework for caring for or treating people who lack the ability to make decisions for them. For a doctor assessing a patients’ capacity is an essential aspect of their profession.
The mental capacity act assessment has gained its importance in the modern world where decision making plays a vital role. The word capacity denotes time and decision. Some people face issues while making a decision; it may be due to the complex decision. In this case, people need professional advice like psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and many more. Lacking capacity is an illness or disability like mental health problems, learning disabilities, or dementia when a person’s lack of mental capacity leads to a lack of particular decision making at the right time.
Five major principles of the mental capacity act
There are five primary principles of mental capacity act assignment, as mentioned below:
- The capacity of a patient, should always be assumed by the doctors. The doctors assume the capacity of patience by a different process like diagnosis, appearance, and behavior. Before treatment, the capacity of the patient is assumed by the doctor as required by the mental capacity act. The first principle is important as it assumes the capacity before proving the capacity.
- In place of treating people like they are incapable of making a decision, all the practical steps should be used in order to help them. As per the mental capacity act, it is very important to take all the practical steps like giving sufficient time, repeating assessment, sings languages, pictures, etc. It is important that the patient should be given all the practicable help before they are deemed that they are unable to make a decision.
- The third principle of mental capacity act seals with the patient’s unwise decision that must be entitled. By the process, entitled to make an unwise decision should be determined to check the capacity. The patients must not be treated as they are incapable of making an unwise decision.
- The mental capacity act assignment deals with the decision and actions of the people for people. The decisions and the actions of the people must be made for lacking capacity in their best interest. This principle includes a person’s welfare, social, emotional, and psychological, as well as medical interest.
- The fifth principle of mental capacity act is for the basic rights and freedoms. Before making a decision for someone or on behalf of someone, it must be considered that the outcome should be achieved in a less restrictive way. When you are making a decision on behalf of a person lacking capacity, you must consider that it is possible to delay a decision until a person regains its capacity.
The mental capacity act assignment is done with the help of the above five principles. So it is very important that one must follow the principles of the mental capacity act to make a proper decision. The mental capacity act provides the reason due to which someone is unable to make a decision. The reasons are like to understand the information that is relevant to the decision, retain the information in making the decision, communicating the decision by any means that includes speech, sign, language, etc.?
