The Uk Mental Capacity Amendment Act 2019 Receives Royal Assent

The Uk Mental Capacity Amendment Act 2019 Receives Royal Assent

The law amends the Mental Capacity Act 2005, that lays down the provisions for instances when a person lacks capacity to make decisions for themselves. The amendment introduces the concept of Liberty Protection Safeguards (hereinafter LPS) to protect the persons who don’t have mental capacity and may be deprived of the liberty during the care.

The amendment was necessitated because the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) become cumbersome due to procedure and has not been able to protect the individuals. DoLS was legal framework designed to against arbitrary detention of people in hospitals or care homes who don’t have mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care. While the new amendments were discussed the House of Lords in UK commented on it as “poorly drafted, complex and bearing no relation to ethos of Mental Capacity Act 2005”. The new model of LPS shall apply on individuals who are age 16 and above

The primary aims of the new amendment is to protect the rights of the vulnerable adults who lack mental capacity and have their liberty deprived, besides other objectives such as:

1. Simpler process that involves families and quicker assessments
2. Less cumbersome for people, families and care-givers
3. Eliminate repeated authorizations when someone moves between care home, family and hospital

Also, noteworthy is that welfare organizations who work for welfare of the mentally incapacitated shall facilitate such identification an cases of LPS, to make the process more humane as per the international best practices suggested by World Health Organization (WHO).