Last Updated on December 2, 2016

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced a new film exploring the Mental Capacity Act and how to use it. It adds to a wealth of resources that are part of its Mental Capacity Act Directory.

In the new film, Baroness Finlay, Chair of the National Mental Capacity Forum, explains how the Mental Capacity Act can support care staff with difficult decisions.

The Mental Capacity Act is in place to empower people to make decisions and to support them when their capacity for making decisions is impaired. It means that people must look at what the individual needs, and it is specific to a decision at a specific time. It’s not a blanket judgement over their mental capacity.

Five principles underpin the whole Act:

1. Presume capacity.
2. People may need support.
3. People can take unwise decisions.
4. Best interest decisions should be made on behalf of the person.
5. When you make that decision it should be the less restrictive option.

The National Mental Capacity Forum aims to bring people together who have a particular interest in improving the application of the Act, everywhere, across all sectors. That’s not just in health and social care, it is in the finance sectors, in banking, in shops, everywhere across society.

It also aims not to stigmatise people, to decrease the fear of the Mental Capacity Act and help people realise that it applies to everyone in society when faced with somebody who may lack capacity about a particular decision.

The information the National Mental Capacity Forum produces forms part of the Mental Capacity Act Directory on the SCIE website. The Mental Capacity Act Directory helps to raise awareness of the Mental Capacity Act, including the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. There is useful information and tools to help understand or implement it. It contains material for people who may be subject to the Act’s provisions, and for professionals from a range of backgrounds.