20-21 April 2012. A two-day interdisciplinary workshop to be held at the University of Essex.
Mental capacity has become a central concept in social care and mental health services; yet disagreement persists over what capacity requires, how and when it is best assessed, and to what extent a person’s mental incapacity can legitimise taking decisions on their behalf. This workshop aims to bring together psychiatrists, lawyers, social workers, philosophers, carers and representatives of advocacy groups to discuss mental capacity in law, practice and theory. We shall focus on three clusters of issues:
– When should mental capacity be questioned? Can a series of unwise decisions rebut the presumption of mental capacity? Is coercion ever justified in order to enable an assessment of a person’s capacity?
– Should capacity assessment be guided by any conception of good, rational, wise or non-pathological decision-making? In particular, what does it mean to require abilities to ‘use or weigh’ relevant information (MCA) or to ‘reason’ and ‘appreciate’ (MacCAT-T)?
– Does the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities require revising or abolishing mental capacity legislation? Will ‘functional’ conceptions of mental capacity inevitably collapse into discriminatory ‘status’-based tests?
Speakers:
Neil Allen (Thirty Nine Essex Street and University of Manchester)
Gordon Ashton (Court of Protection)
Peter Bartlett (University of Nottingham)
Peter Beresford (Brunel University)
Suzy Croft (St. John’s Hospice and Brunel University)
Scott Kim (University of Michigan)
Hazel Marshall (Central London Civil Justice Centre)
Tom O’Shea (Essex Autonomy Project)
Gareth Owen (Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry)
In addition to talks, discussion periods and ample time for informal interaction, there will also be a dedicated session to talk through some real case studies.
Poster based on an image by Ben Weston and used under a Creatives Commons license under Non-commercial, Attribution and Share Alike conditions.
This entry was posted in Events, Previous Events. Bookmark the
permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
Capacity Assessments: Ethical, Political and Metaphysical Issues
20-21 April 2012. A two-day interdisciplinary workshop to be held at the University of Essex.
Mental capacity has become a central concept in social care and mental health services; yet disagreement persists over what capacity requires, how and when it is best assessed, and to what extent a person’s mental incapacity can legitimise taking decisions on their behalf. This workshop aims to bring together psychiatrists, lawyers, social workers, philosophers, carers and representatives of advocacy groups to discuss mental capacity in law, practice and theory. We shall focus on three clusters of issues:
– When should mental capacity be questioned? Can a series of unwise decisions rebut the presumption of mental capacity? Is coercion ever justified in order to enable an assessment of a person’s capacity?
– Should capacity assessment be guided by any conception of good, rational, wise or non-pathological decision-making? In particular, what does it mean to require abilities to ‘use or weigh’ relevant information (MCA) or to ‘reason’ and ‘appreciate’ (MacCAT-T)?
– Does the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities require revising or abolishing mental capacity legislation? Will ‘functional’ conceptions of mental capacity inevitably collapse into discriminatory ‘status’-based tests?
Speakers:
Neil Allen (Thirty Nine Essex Street and University of Manchester)
Gordon Ashton (Court of Protection)
Peter Bartlett (University of Nottingham)
Peter Beresford (Brunel University)
Suzy Croft (St. John’s Hospice and Brunel University)
Scott Kim (University of Michigan)
Hazel Marshall (Central London Civil Justice Centre)
Tom O’Shea (Essex Autonomy Project)
Gareth Owen (Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry)
In addition to talks, discussion periods and ample time for informal interaction, there will also be a dedicated session to talk through some real case studies.
Poster based on an image by Ben Weston and used under a Creatives Commons license under Non-commercial, Attribution and Share Alike conditions.