Occupational therapy and mental capacity

Occupational therapists are well placed to work in the field of mental capacity. The very ethos of occupational therapy is to support the individual to participate and engage in their everyday life to the best of their ability. Consent and capacity are everyday considerations in practice. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) has five key principles: presumption of capacity unless established otherwise; taking all practicable steps to assist a person to make a decision for themselves (ie before establishing otherwise); unwise decisions do not by themselves indicate a lack of capacity; acting in best interests; considering less restrictive options. 

Learning points

• The key principles of the MCA and what they mean in practice.
• How to apply the MCA in practice, specifically working with adults. 
• What ‘best interests’ means and how best interests decisions are made in practice. 

Speaker: Louise Straughan, an occupational therapy lecturer at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Louise qualified as an occupational therapist in 2001 and worked in the NHS in Norfolk until joining UEA in 2018. During clinical practice, she worked in a range of roles including amputee rehabilitation, orthopedic rehabilitation, end-of-life care, and inpatient adult mental health. While completing the postgraduate certificate in dementia leadership at UEA in 2014, Louise worked as the falls and dementia services co-ordinator for Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

This webinar is free to attend for Community Care Inform subscribers, a promotional code will be emailed to you. Non-subscribers can attend for £35 + VAT.