The Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards online course
Post date: 31/07/2023 | Time to read article: 1 minsThe information within this article was correct at the time of publishing. Last updated 31/07/2023
Produced by Medical Protection in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council and NHS England
A free resource for healthcare professionals
Not only is a good knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) important to ensuring patients are protected, it’s also an expectation of a CQC inspection that healthcare professionals have a thorough understanding of the Act.
This two and a half hour course is divided into nine modules of interactive content. It features interviews with leading experts working with the Mental Capacity Act.
This Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards online course will help healthcare professionals understand:
- what the Mental Capacity Act is
- what they need to know
- how it affects them
- how it affects their patients
- how to apply this to their practice.
Non-members can sign up for free
About the Act
The Mental Capacity Act was introduced as legislature in 2005 and A House of Lords Select Committee was set up to look into the Act, in order to find out if it was working as Parliament intended. The report was published in March 2014.
The committee found that there was a general lack of awareness of the provisions of the Act, which has allowed prevailing professional practices to continue unchallenged. This has allowed decision-making to be dominated by professionals, without the required input from families and carers about the patient’s wishes and feelings.
As the report concluded there is a widespread lack of understanding in the medical profession around the Mental Capacity Act, this poses a risk to patients and those professionals delivering their care.
