BMJ  2008;336:322-325 (9 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39457.485347.80

Clinical Review

Assessing mental capacity: the Mental Capacity Act

Timothy R J Nicholson, specialist registrar in psychiatry 1, William Cutter, consultant psychiatrist 2, Matthew Hotopf, professor of general hospital psychiatry1

1 Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Western Education Centre, London SE5 9RJ, 2 Directorate of Older Persons’ Mental Health Services, Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, Southampton, Hampshire SO40 2RZ

Correspondence to: M Hotopf m.hotopf@iop.kcl.ac.uk

Assessing mental capacity is an important part of a clinician’s role, and the recent Mental Capacity Act can help doctors when making such decisions

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


The Mental Capacity Act has resulted in increased formalisation of capacity law and assessment
The act has increased the expectation that healthcare workers should be competent at assessing capacity
The act has also increased the need for training and education, especially awareness and understanding of the code of practice, independent mental capacity advocates, and advance decisions


Clinicians are often confronted with decisions about mental capacity. Healthcare workers in England and Wales should therefore be aware of the recent changes to how capacity is assessed and the way that adults lacking capacity are dealt with since the implementation in 2007 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.1

The act protects people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions. Until the Mental Capacity Act 2005 was implemented no statutory law covered this area. Courts previously dealt with capacity under "common law," which consists of the accumulated judgments of individual cases. The Mental . . . [Full text of this article]


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