The conference took place on 16 March 2021. The theme was life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In this conference, we reflected on the Mental Capacity Act and the ways we put it into practice to improve the quality of life for vulnerable people. Get the details of what was discussed and access the recordings.
Session 1: A day in the life of a Court of Protection judge
Judge Simmonds is widely known as one of the youngest Judges. He is a Bournemouth Court of Protection Judge and the South West lead for the Court of Protection. He gave a talk on a day in the life of a Court of Protection Judge, giving us some valuable insights into the challenges of the role and how decisions are made.
Watch Judge Simmonds: A Day in the Life of a Court of Protection Judge on YouTube
Session 2: Diagnoses and capacity
Professor Ken Wilson specialises in the management of working-age adults with progressive cognitive damage and patients with alcohol-related brain damage.
His talk helped us to understand how to assess the capacity of people who seem to have a reasonable understanding of various issues but are unable to act accordingly. Access the recording:
Watch Professor Ken Wilson: Diagnoses and Capacity on YouTube
Session 3: Assessing the capacity and quality of assessments
Dr Benedict Henry is a psychiatrist and is passionate about the law. Ben has been involved in advising peers in the House of Lords in relation to the Liberty Protection Safeguards. Ben looked at how to assess capacity, the quality of those assessments and other aspects of the Mental Capacity Act.
Watch Dr Benedict Henry: Assessing the capacity and quality of assessments on YouTube
Session 4: Happiness
Lorraine Currie is an MCA lead both to local authority and the National MCA Forum. She is a social worker and also the mother of a young woman, who has an acquired brain injury.
Lorraine is widely respected for her professional knowledge and views, and her experiences as a mother give her a unique and much deeper understanding of the MCA. We challenged Lorraine to really give us some thoughts on happiness and how the MCA can promote and protect it.
Watch Lorraine Currie: Happiness on YouTube