Borough of Telford & Wrekin

Mental Capacity Act

The Mental Capacity Act came into effect on 1 April 2007. It applies to all people who are 16 years and older and is to protect people who cannot make decisons for
themselves.
Every day we make decisions about lots of things in our lives. The ability to make decisions is called mental capacity.
People may have difficulties making some decisions either all or some of the time. This could be because they have for example:

  • a learning disability
  • dementia
  • a mental health problem
  • a head injury or a stroke

The Act affects people in these situations. It will also affect their families,carers, health and social care staff, and other people who may have contact with them.

The Act also talks about decisions which everyone might want to make whilst they still have the capacity to do so. An example of this is, advanced decisions or living wills.

The Mental Capacity Act is now implemented.

To find out more information please look at the leaflets which you can download from the links on the right or go to the Government website for all the recent information and documents.

The Act is underpinned by 5 key principles - a summary of these is now available.

The slides that go with the basic awareness raising training course are now available

The slides that go with the advanced training course are now available.

The Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) for Telford & Wrekin is an organisation called POhWER.

The Public Guardian website has all the up to date information and you can download publications



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Please note - Some documents published before 1st December 2006 may contain incorrect contact numbers.
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For up to date contact numbers please refer to the Guide to Council Services.