Mental Capacity - Principles and Problems

This session will cover capacity history, information and guidelines and specific criteria for various capacity functions including:

• testamentary capacity;

• capacity in decision making;

• capacity to instruct solicitors;

• discussion and Q and A.

The seminar will be delivered by Dr Noel Scott. Dr Scott TD, FRCP, MRCPsych was a Consultant Psychiatrist at Belfast City Hospital from 1981 until his retirement from NHS practice in 2009. His special area of expertise was Psychiatry of Old Age (POA) and he established the first POA service in Ireland, organised along lines recommended by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He served as a ‘second opinion’ medical officer in relation to the NI Mental Health Order (part IV provisions) from 1986 to 2013. Dr Scott sits as a medical member on the NI Mental Health Review Tribunal, the Medical Appeal Tribunal and the Pensions Appeal Tribunal. He has a special interest in mental capacity and has provided many capacity-related reports on patients including for the Official Solicitor to the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland. He also has a special interest and expertise in somatoform disorders, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, psychiatric trauma and military psychiatry.