How can I plan ahead with the Mental Capacity Act?
There are three key ways which you might want to use in order to plan for a time when you may lack capacity:
Lasting Power of Attorney
The Mental Capacity Act enables you (if you are over 18 and have the capacity to do so) to appoint someone to make decisions about your personal welfare (health/social care etc) or property and affairs (finances etc) should you ever lack the capacity to make these decisions yourself. This is called a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).
If you already act as a Receiver for someone who lacks capacity, or if you are acting for someone under an existing Enduring Power of Attorney, you may need to see the DirectGov website for further information.
Advance Decisions to Refuse Treatment
You can also make a decision in advance to refuse (not request) particular medical treatment. This decision would become relevant should you lack capacity to refuse such treatment in the future. You must be over 18 when you make your advance decision and must clearly set out the treatment that you want to refuse and the circumstances of refusal. You can refuse mental disorder treatment by way of an advance decision, but if you were to be detained under the Mental Health Act, the decision about the mental health treatment might be overridden by the provisions of that Act. Even if you are detained, refusal of treatment relating to an unrelated physical condition might still be upheld. There are also rules relating to the refusal of Electro Convulsive Therapy which in some circumstances enable refusal even when detained. You may wish to discuss the making of an advance decision and its implications in detail with your doctor.
Advance Statement
An advance statement (or statement of wishes and feelings) is about anything else other than refusal of specific medical treatment (so you could request a treatment that has worked well in the past). If you are over 16, you might wish to write down wishes and preferences about care or other aspects of your life that you want clinicians to be aware of when they are looking after you and you may not be able to tell them yourself. The Trust has forms that you could use (available to download below) – although you are not required to use these forms if you don’t want to. The booklets do give a helpful reminder of things that you can put in your advance statement. Should you lack capacity to make a decision for yourself, a decision maker is required to take this statement into account when considering your best interests. You should note that is not legally binding on decision makers, but a decision maker should give reasons why it was not possible to carry out your requests.
