Capacity Guide

Guidance for clinicians and social care professionals on the assessment of capacity

I want help with…

  • What it means to lack capacity to make a decision
  • Understanding the principles I need to apply
  • Understanding the functional criteria
  • Thinking about specific types of decision
  • What I should do if I think that a person cannot make the decision
  • Understanding how to use psychological and neuroscientific tests
  • Understanding more about insight and capacity
  • Recording my assessment

How to approach situations which seem challenging

  • The situation seems risky to me
  • I am finding it difficult to engage the person
  • The person’s capacity seems to fluctuate
  • The person seems to say one thing and to do another
  • The person seems to be under the influence of someone else