{"id":6703,"date":"2017-07-14T12:49:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T12:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkingmats.com\/?p=6703"},"modified":"2017-07-14T12:49:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T12:49:46","slug":"considering-mental-capacity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talkingmats.com\/considering-mental-capacity\/","title":{"rendered":"Considering Mental Capacity"},"content":{"rendered":"

When considering someone’s mental capacity its is important to bear in mind that the right to self-determination is enshrined in law.<\/p>\n

In 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt, as the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, was the driving force in creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Act (1948)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Eleanor<\/a><\/p>\n

Since 1948 there have been laws passed in many countries stating that people with communication disabilities should have equal rights, including and specifically in the complex area of mental capacity. In the United States the Federal Law that covers this is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990\u00a0<\/a>.\u00a0In the UK the key Acts of Parliament are the Mental Capacity Act (2005) England and Wales<\/a> \u00a0and the Adults with Incapacity Scotland Act (2000)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UK Acts specifically focus on mental capacity and say that every adult has the right to make decisions unless proved otherwise and that each individual has a different capacity to make decisions about different aspects of their life. In addition they state that we must assume that someone has Capacity unless it is established that the person has substantial difficulty in one or more of the following criteria<\/strong> in the following diagram.<\/p>\n

\"capacity<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a number of important expectations behind these Acts which are particularly significant for people with communication difficulties.<\/p>\n