The Mental Capacity Act 2005

This act covers England and Wales and is in place to provide professionals with the framework to protect and empower adults who may lack the mental capacity to make decisions and choices for themself.  The act is there to define who may make decisions for someone, when those decisions should be made and how they should be made.

There are five key principles in the Act:

• Every adult has the right to make his or her own decisions and must be assumed to have capacity to make them unless it is proved otherwise.
• A person must be given all practicable help before anyone treats them as not being able to make their own decisions.
• Just because an individual makes what might be seen as an unwise decision, they should not be treated as lacking capacity to make that decision.
• Anything done or any decision made on behalf of a person who lacks capacity must be done in their best interests.
• Anything done for or on behalf of a person who lacks capacity should be the least restrictive of their basic rights and freedoms.