| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Understanding of the Mental Capacity Act in work with older adults exploring the "unintended consequences" for service users' emotional wellbeing | | Author(s) | Matthew Graham |
| Journal title | Working with Older People, vol 20, no 3, 2016 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2016 |
| Pages | pp 151-156 |
| Source | www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/wwop.htm |
| Keywords | Mental disorder ; Court of protection ; Rights [elderly] ; Well being ; England. |
| Annotation | This paper explores the consequences for older people's mental well-being of understandings relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The MCA seeks to maximise people's abilities to make decisions, and provides a framework for decisions to be made in their best interests, should they lack the mental capacity to do so themselves (M Graham and J Cowley, 2015). Practice varies widely amongst health and social care practitioners, and little is known about the nature of interventions under the MCA or the outcomes for service users' lives and health, especially their mental health and emotional well-being. By reflecting on existing evidence, this position paper offers a narrative of how practice in applying the principles of the MCA may affect older people's mental well-being. Drawing on Court of Protection judgments and existing research, the author analyses the way the MCA is understood and applied, and how institutional mechanisms might hinder good practice. There are tensions between policy imperatives and examples of practice linked to the MCA, the spirit of the Act, and tenets of good practice. Despite efforts on promoting choice, control and rights, there is growing paradoxical evidence that the MCA is used as a safeguarding tool, with the consequences that it constrains older people's rights, and that it may encourage risk averse practice. The consequences of this for older people are considerable and include lack of choice, autonomy and self-determination. This discussion suggests that anxiety in relation to the application of the MCA still exists in practice, and that maximising older people's capacity and supporting decision-making is central in promoting mental health and well-being. This position paper identifies how the MCA might be interpreted in action by considering existing evidence. The paper may lead to future research on how understandings of the MCA are constructed, and what values underpin its application from conception to outcomes in relation to understandings of risk, risk aversion, decision-making and the potential and need for emancipatory practice. Essentially, the paper discusses how the MCA actually seeks to enhance older people's mental health and emotional well-being, by offering a rather radical approach to understanding people's wishes and feelings, but how attitudes may lead to misunderstandings and negative outcomes for the individual. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-161125229 A |
| Classmark | E: JVC: IKR: D:F:5HH: 82 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|