The assessment of mental capacity in occupational health

Abstract

Rarely there maybe a need for occupational health professionals (OHPs) to assess mental capacity such as in a worker who has dementia or brain injury but more commonly OHPs need to understand how they are conducted. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) is designed ‘to protect and empower people who may lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment.’ It applies to people aged 16 and over in England and Wales but not in Scotland which has its own legislation. It sets out five ‘statutory principles’, ‘a person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that they lack capacity, a person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision unless all practicable steps to help them to do so have been taken without success, a person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision merely...