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Understanding mental capacity

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More about this course

This free course, Understanding mental capacity, describes the principles and criteria underpinning the assessment of mental capacity and decision making in the UK. The course begins by looking at what mental capacity – and the lack of it – means. You will be introduced to various groups of people who are more likely to lack mental capacity, but you will also learn why it is relevant to everyone. You will look at what can be done to help someone to make a decision themselves and the principles and steps that enable people to judge, fairly, whether someone has capacity or not. You will be introduced to the legislation in the UK and will see how it supports and protects people who may lack capacity.

The course will appeal to those who support people aged 16 or over and who have to make decisions in order to address the variety of interpretation and inconsistent application of services in everyday provision. It will explain the law and how it is applied in a practical way for those making important decisions about other’s lives, such as health and social care staff, police, banks and insurance industry workers, and retailers.

Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.

Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation - which also displays your Open University badge.

This course is endorsed by the CPD Standards Office ³⁴⁰³⁵¹. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development but is not accredited learning. We are unable to provide formal learner verification services for participation in our open online courses, which are provided freely by The Open University as self-directed CPD.

Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

understand what is meant by mental capacity
apply your knowledge about mental capacity to different scenarios and outline how to support and/or assess capacity for decision making in each case
outline what is involved in a mental capacity assessment
identify what you would like to do next in relation to mental capacity in your personal life and/or career.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey ³⁵². Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey ³⁵³. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

Earn this free Open University digital badge if you complete this course! The badge can be displayed, shared and downloaded as a marker of your achievement. The badge is awarded for completing the course and passing the quizzes.

First Published: 15/12/2016

Updated: 20/01/2020

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You can start this course right now without signing-up. Click on any of the course content sections below to start at any point in this course.
If you want to be able to track your progress, earn a free Statement of Participation, and access all course quizzes and activities, sign-up.

Course content

- Introduction and guidance
- Current section:
  Introduction and guidance
  This free badged course, Understanding mental capacity, lasts eight weeks with approximately three hours’ study time each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete a further study session.You’ll start the course by looking at what mental capacity – and the lack of it – means. You will be introduced to various groups of people who are more likely to lack mental capacity, but...
- What is a badged course?
- Keep on learning
- Acknowledgements
- week1Week 1: What is mental capacity?
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Welcome to Week 1 of the free badged course Understanding mental capacity. You may be interested in this course because you want to support a family member or a friend, or because you volunteer in a care setting, or because aspects of your work require you to understand it. You may not think about mental capacity in terms of its relevance to you personally. You may even feel rather daunted by the term ‘mental capacity’ as it can sound complicated and legalistic.Mental capacity is...
- 1 What is mental capacity?
  - 1.1 Three points about mental capacity
  - 1.2 Mental capacity and organisations: differences and similarities
- 2 Who and how many lack mental capacity?
  - 2.1 Who else is affected?
- 3 How does time affect mental capacity?
  - 3.1 Mental capacity can fluctuate
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 1 practice quiz
- SEO URL
- week2Week 2: Decisions, decisions
- Current section:
  Introduction
  How would it feel if you were unable to make decisions for yourself? We make decisions all the time without realising how important it is to us: relatively minor, everyday ones like what to wear in the morning or sometimes more significant, life-changing ones like where to live, or decisions between these two extremes. Where a person’s mental capacity is in doubt, their ability to make a decision has to be given careful consideration before someone else makes the decision on their beha...
- 1 Types of decisions
  - 1.1 Exceptions
  - 1.2 How do we make decisions?
- 2 Unwise decisions
- 3 Who is the decision maker?
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 2 practice quiz
- week3Week 3: Mental capacity and the law
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Mental capacity has a different legal framework in each UK nation. Despite the differences – such as the names and dates of the acts – each is underpinned by similar principles. This week you explore these principles and how they apply in real-life situations. To begin, you look at the historical background and how each of the acts developed. By the end of this week you should be able to:name the mental capacity law that applies to each nation of the UK explain the principles of...
- 1 How the law developed
- 2 Mental capacity principles
- 3 Applying the legal principles
  - 3.1 The Code of Practice
  - 3.2 Values, attitudes and actions
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 3 practice quiz
- week4Week 4: Assessing mental capacity
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Before the mental capacity legislation, the assessment of whether a person had mental capacity and whether they could make their own decisions or would need another person to do so on their behalf was made by a professional, usually a doctor. This has now changed. The person who should do the assessment for everyday decisions is usually the adult most directly involved with the person at the time. This could be a family member or a paid carer. For bigger decisions such as those involving asp...
- 1 Assessments in care
- 2 Who assesses?
  - 2.1 What about more complex situations?
- 3 Doing an assessment
  - 3.1 ‘Rules’ for supporting and assessing
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 4 compulsory badge quiz
- week5Week 5: Children and young people
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Mental capacity is a complicated enough topic in relation to adults, for whom the presence or lack of capacity is often highly debatable. For children, however, and especially for young children, there is a general presumption of incapacity, not capacity. Of course, this evolves through childhood, but, as we all know, every child is different. While chronological age is important, it is not the only factor that determines whether decision making should be at the discretion of the parents or...
- 1 Decisions, children and young people
- 2 Children, young people and decisions
- 3 Exceptional situations
  - 3.1 Child sexual exploitation
  - 3.2 Mental capacity, mental health services and the law
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 5 practice quiz
- week6Week 6: Learning disabilities
- Current section:
  Introduction
  People of any age can have a learning disability. It may make it difficult for them to communicate their wishes and to be understood, which means that both mental capacity assessment and decision making on their behalf need to be done with particular care. This week you look at some of the features and needs of people with learning disabilities, and how they can be empowered to achieve a fulfilling life.By the end of this week you should be able to:describe what is meant by ‘learning d...
- 1 Capacity and people with learning disabilities
  - 1.1 Learning disabilities and communication
  - 1.2 Cultural issues
- 2 Decisions, rights and responsibilities
- 3 Exceptional situations
  - 3.1 Marriage, hate and death
  - 3.2 Extreme measures
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- Further reading
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 6 practice quiz
- week7Week 7: Older people
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Most older people have a lifetime of experience in making decisions for themselves and others, as parents, carers, employees and citizens. To be assessed in later life as no longer having the mental capacity to function in this way is likely to be disorientating and distressing. This week you consider the mental capacity of older people. By the end of this week you should be able to:explain some of the attitudes towards and expectations of older people in UK societyexplain how assessing...
- 1 Getting old
  - 1.1 Getting old: what do we expect?
  - 1.2 Balancing risk with well-being
- 2 Decision making and older people
  - 2.1 The concept of personhood
  - 2.2 Three common decisions
- 3 Exceptional situations
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- Further reading
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Week 7 practice quiz
- week8Week 8: Mental capacity: the future
- Current section:
  Introduction
  Congratulations on reaching the final week of the course. Hopefully you have developed an understanding of mental capacity and gained useful insight into who is affected by this issue and how. You have also thought about how mental capacity is relevant to you. This week you will explore how the way in which mental capacity is managed through the law may change in the next ten years. You will also consolidate your learning and think about your next steps.By the end of this week you should be...
- 1 How the law is changing
- 2 What have you learned?
- 3 What do you want to do next?
- 4 Next steps
- This week’s quiz
- Summary
- Tell us what you think
- Further reading
- Acknowledgements
- Week 8 compulsory badge quiz

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