On Capacity
Mental capacity Act outlines the principles and legal aspects.
You must start from the presumption that every adult patient has the capacity to make decisions about their treatment care.
Remember capacity is decision and time-specific.
A person has the capacity if they can do all the following:
understand information relevant to the decision in question
retain that information
use the information to make their decision
communicate a decision
Pitalls
Social service asking GP to make a capacity decision about finances. This is not within the remit of a GP (unless you have financial training). You can review if the patient has a disorder of the mind and consider referral eg to the memory clinic. The final decision on financial capacity is a social service assessment.
Really useful template form
Mental Capacity Assessment Form.pdfRelated ideas
Causative nexus
Are you satisfied that the inability to make a decision is because of the impairment of the mind or brain?