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Assessing Capacity. What is your responsibility ? How do you do it ? Carly Houghton Team Leader Deprivation of Liberty Team LCC Helen Pearson Board Officer Safeguarding Boards (LSCB/SAB ). Capacity to do what?!. Understand risk to a child Understand a Protection Plan Sustain change - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Assessing Capacity
What is your responsibility ?
How do you do it ?Carly Houghton Team Leader
Deprivation of Liberty Team LCC Helen Pearson Board Officer Safeguarding
Boards (LSCB/SAB)
Capacity to do what?! Understand risk to a child Understand a Protection Plan Sustain change Be fit for interview Be criminally responsible Make decisions about where you live Understand that what is happening to them is
harmful Refuse services
What affects decision making? Alcohol Drugs Learning Disability Alzheimer's/Dementia Mental Health diagnosis Domestic Abuse (coercion) Lack of empathy/egotism Personality disorders Cycles of abuse /Learnt behaviour
What ever the reason ! What is the impact ?
On a person’s ability to understand, retain and act on information
On a person’s ability to protect themselves and others
Look beyond a diagnosis and consider how thinking and behaviour impacts
What do these statements mean?
They lack capacity ! They have a Learning Disability so don’t
understand They do not have a mental health
diagnosis so there is nothing we can do I can’t assess capacity because I know
nothing about mental health.
Who assesses capacity
YOU
We can all contribute Expertise in a particular area of work-
Mental Health, Learning Disability, Child Development, Drugs and Alcohol
Knowledge of the child or adult and their day to day experience – ‘What they wake up to’; Walking with them through the day
Creative communication techniques Joint working
Not going into detail of Mental Capacity Act but use the principles as a guide to best practice how we might consider a
persons capacity
Mental Capacity Act 2005
The key principles of the Mental Capacity Act are: Every adult assumed to have capacity unless
demonstrated otherwise Person not to be treated as unable to make a
decision simply because his or her decision is an unwise one
Person must be empowered as far as possible to help them reach capacity
Any act done for a person who lacks capacity must be done in that person’s “best interests”
Must consider if there is a less restrictive option
Adults can make decisions( they may be unwise)
The test for capacity
MCA s2 A person lacks capacity if he is unable to
make a decision because of an impairment of or a disturbance in function of the mind or brain
Impairment can be temporary Lack of capacity cannot be determined
either by a person’s age or appearance
Inability to make decisions
MCA s3 A person is “unable to make a decision
for himself” if he is unable:- To understand the information relevant to
the decision To retain that information To use or weigh that information in the
decision making process Communicate his decision
Asking the right questions
Break it down Isolate decision Is it understood Test it out – Evidence through observations
actions
Building confidence in Capacity assessments Use professional judgement Ask for assistance/expertise Think Whole Family Adult workers think child Children’s workers think adult Multi Agency decision making