Mental Health and the Law Flashcards
Define mental capacity
One’s ability to make decisions
- time and decision specific
Aim of the Mental Capacity Act
Identify those who may lack capacity to consent to or refuse treatment
Features of capacity
If temporary lack of capacity - reassess later
Does the patient meet following criteria
- understand information to make relevant decision
- retain information long enough
- use information as part of decision making process
- communicate decision by talking, signing or other means
Key principles of Mental Capacity Act
Best interest - decisions made on behalf of patient must be in their best interest
Help to make decisions - use of interpreters, multiple times
Eccentric or unwise decisions allowed - capacity determined by way in which decision is made no the decision itself
Least restrictive intervention
Presumption of capacity - until proven otherwise
Features of lasting powers of attorney
Allows person to appoint an attorney to make future decisions on their behalf if they lose capacity
- property and affairs
- personal welfare
Features of advance care planning
Process which allows patients to make decisions about their future care
- advance statement or decision to refuse treatment
- lasting power of attorney
Features of advance decision/directive
Legal document with specific refusal of treatment in a predefined future situation
Advanced decision/directive permit a patient to refuse treatment but not demand it
- do not allow patients to refuse basic care needs such as oral food/drink or basic hygiene
Advance statement - allows patient to make general statements about their wishes and preferences for the future
Features of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS)
Ensures that people in care homes, hospitals and supported living who lack capacity are looked after in a way that does no inappropriately restrict their freedoms
Features of an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA)
Someone appointed to support a person who lacks capacity but has no one to speak on their behalf
- no next of kin or lasting power of attorney
When to use Mental Health Act for Admission
Refusal of voluntary treatment
Other options considered but not appropriate
Mental disorder
Risk of harm - self-harm, self-neglect or harm others
Appropriate treatment available
Purpose of a Section 2
Allows for admission, for assessment and response to treatment
- lasts 28 days
Purpose of Section 3
Treatment of mental disorder
- must be known to mental health services or following an admission under section 2
- up to 6 months
Patients right under section
Section 2 can appeal to a tribunal during first 14 days and to hospital managers at any time
Section 3 have one time to appeal during the first 6 months of detention
Features of section 117
Free aftercare once discharged from a section 3
Emergency sections
Last 72 hours apart from section (5)4 which is up to 6 hours
Section 4 - emergency when section 2 would involve unacceptable delay
- no right to appeal
Section (5)2 - urgent detention of inpatients on any ward
- no right to appeal
- must then be assed for section 2/3 or discharge to become informal patient
Section (5)4 - allows urgent detention up to 6 hours of an inpatient already receiving treatment for a mental disorder in hospital
- no right to appeal
Section 135 - allows police officer or authorized person with a magistrate’s warrant to enter a person’s premises who is suspected from suffering from a mental disorder to remove them to a safe of safety
Section 136 - allows a police officer to remove an individual who appears to be suffering from a mental disorder from a public place to a place of safely for assessment
