Book contents
- Mental Capacity Legislation
- Mental Capacity Legislation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Editors’ Note
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The Assessment of Mental Capacity
- Chapter 3 Best Interests
- Chapter 4 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards: Past, Present and Future
- Chapter 5A Mental Capacity Act Application: Hospital Settings
- Chapter 5B Mental Capacity Act Application: Social Care Settings
- Chapter 6 Mental Capacity and End of Life Decision-Making
- Chapter 7 Clinical Ambiguities in the Assessment of Capacity
- Index
- References
Chapter 5A - Mental Capacity Act Application: Hospital Settings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2019
- Mental Capacity Legislation
- Mental Capacity Legislation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Editors’ Note
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The Assessment of Mental Capacity
- Chapter 3 Best Interests
- Chapter 4 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards: Past, Present and Future
- Chapter 5A Mental Capacity Act Application: Hospital Settings
- Chapter 5B Mental Capacity Act Application: Social Care Settings
- Chapter 6 Mental Capacity and End of Life Decision-Making
- Chapter 7 Clinical Ambiguities in the Assessment of Capacity
- Index
- References
Summary
The purpose of the Mental Capacity Act can be thought of as follows: a means of providing legal justification for actions in connection with a person, which would normally require the consent of that person, when it is not possible to obtain consent on the grounds that the person lacks the decision-making capacity to give or withhold legally valid consent. In other words, if a healthcare professional needs to do something, which would normally be unlawful if they did not gain the patient’s consent, but the patient is unable to give consent, then the Mental Capacity Act provides a framework.
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- Mental Capacity LegislationPrinciples and Practice, pp. 74 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019