Capacity and consent: Knowledge and practice of legal and healthcare standards

Abstract

The legal context of decision-making capacity and consent to treatment appears complex for healthcare practitioners. Professional, ethical and legal standards of care in this context can benefit from structured education programmes and supportive governance processes. An understanding of why 'duty of care' is being used as a framework within the context of impaired decision-making capacity is warranted, alongside a review of the context of Duty of Care within health policy, guidance and faculty teaching.

COVID‐19: Restrictive practices and the law during a global pandemic – an Australian perspective

“…Poor knowledge of regulation may lead healthcare practitioners to illegally authorize restrictive practice (Lamont et al . 2016, 2019).…”

Comparative Evaluation of Knowledge About Capacity and Consent Amongst Doctors Working in Private and Government Sectors in India

“…[16] In Australia, a study done by Scott Lamont et al also concluded that there is prevalence of confusion amongst the healthcare professionals regarding the legalities of decision-making capacity and consent to treatment and that structured educational tools are the need of the hour. [17].…”

Occupational therapy and decision‐making capacity assessment: A survey of practice in Ireland

“…Assessment of capacity and decision-making should be core skill of all clinicians (Barry & Docherty, 2018). While occupational therapists have been included in research examining DMC assessments in the UK (Jayes et al, 2017;Lamont et al, 2017), limited research exploring the role of occupational therapy has been conducted to date. Moye and Marson (2007) summarised the scope and practice of judicial review of various civil capacities relevant to older adults.…”

“…Following a review of literature examining health and social care professionals practice in the area of decision-making capacity, a questionnaire was developed. The survey questions were informed by surveys used in previous studies that had investigated the assessment of decision-making capacity by lawyers (Helmes, Lewis, & Allan, 2004), neuropsychologists (Mullaly et al, 2007), speech-language pathologists (Aldous, Tolmie, Worrall, & Ferguson, 2014;Jayes et al, 2017;McCormick, Bose, & Marinis, 2017) and non-specified health-care practitioners (Lamont et al, 2017). These items were contextualised to fit within occupational therapy practice and addressed the domains of DMC assessment defined by Moye and Marson (2007…”

“…Codes of practice to guide health and social care staff in adopting the Act within practice are yet to be implemented. Internationally, barriers to DMC assessment have been identified including lack of education and training, differing understandings of DMC, limited resources and time pressures (Charles et al, ; Jayes, Palmer, & Enderby, ; Lamont, Stewart, & Chiarella, ). A range of models for DMC assessment have been developed in other jurisdictions (Bigby & Douglas, ; Brémault‐Phillips et al, ; Parmar, Brémault‐Phillips, & Charles, ) which may enhance HCP’s ability to assess DMC.…”