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Mental capacity is about the ability to make decisions about lots of things in our lives.
Sometimes people have difficulty making all or some decisions.
Some reasons why people may finding making decisions difficult are:
Voiceability are the independent mental capacity advocates for Bedford Borough. You can contact them on Tel: 0300 300 1660 or email: helpline@voiceability.org
An Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) is an advocate who has been specially trained to support people who are not able to make certain decisions for themselves and do not have family or friends who are able to speak for them.
Their aim is to safeguard people who lack capacity to:
The criteria for referring to the IMCA are:
When requesting assessments in accordance with MCA Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) please email: dols@bedford.gov.uk
The Court of Protection is a special court which looks at cases about people who lack capacity to make decisions. If a very serious decision needs to be made it might be sent to the Court of Protection.
The Court makes decisions and appoints people called 'deputies' who can act for someone who is not able to make decisions about their personal health, finance or welfare.
The Office of Public Guardian is an agency with responsibilities for England and Wales. It supports the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA) and Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), and the supervision of deputies appointed by the Court of Protection.
Email: dols@bedford.gov.uk
We also provide guidance and training on mental capacity for staff working for the council and other agencies.
The Mental Capacity Act was introduced to help people plan for a future loss of capacity, and to protect vulnerable people over the age of 16, who currently are unable to make all (or some) decisions due to a lack of capacity.
The Act makes it a criminal offence against any person who either ill treats and/or is wilfully neglects a person lacking capacity, with potential fines and imprisonment.
The Mental Capacity Act places a legal requirement on all Health and Social Care practitioners, in all directorates, who work directly with service users.
For further information please click on the following factsheets from the Alzheimer’s Society: