Centre for Policy on Ageing



Capacity assessments on medical in-patients referred to social workers for care home placement
Author(s)	Sian Ripley, Sarah Jones, Alastair MacDonald
Journal title	Psychiatric Bulletin, vol 32, no 2, February 2008
Pages	pp 56-59
Source	http://pb.rcpsych.org
Keywords	In-patients ; Medical wards ; Referrals ; Assessment procedures for mental patients ; Admission [care homes].
Annotation	The aim was to investigate the feasibility of a clinical algorithm to assess capacity and examine the relationship between its results and the assessments of capacity by others involved in the decision of a patient to permanently enter a care home from a medical ward. A total of 23 patients out of 38 had some mention of capacity in any type of record (medical, social work or nursing). At formal assessment 47% of older patients lacked capacity. The clinical implications of the absence of any recorded assessment in at least a third of patients is regarded as "worrying", given the importance of the decision to the patients' lives and their financial status. It is to be hoped that the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 will rectify this situation. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-080218201 A
Classmark	LF7: LD4: L5R: DA:4C: KW:QKH
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.