Mental Capacity

Someone who has mental capacity means that they are able to make their own decision at the time when that decision needs to be made.

The Mental Capacity Act says that a person is able to make their own decision if they can do all of the following four things:

• Understand information given to them;
• Retain that information long enough to be able to make the decision;
• Weigh up the information available to make the decision; and
• Communicate their decision.

Mental capacity must be presumed under law and decisions can only be made by someone else once the person has been assessed as lacking capacity through a Mental Capacity Assessment.