Section 7 of the Health Care Consent Act (1996)[i] provides direction for restraint and confinement in a care facility. It states: “This Act does not affect the common law duty of a caregiver to restrain or confine a person when immediate action is necessary to prevent serious bodily harm to…
The British Columbia Court of Appeal released its decision in Bentley v. Maplewood Seniors Care Society earlier this year. The closely watched case involved a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient who was supposedly consenting to being fed by opening her mouth when a spoon or glass was placed on her lower lip. The case raises…
Working with Ontarians to Reform the Law
Capacity is a legal construct, and while screening tests developed based on medical parameters may provide red flags or indications of cognitive impairment, they are not definitive tests of incapacity.
Last week, in my blog entitled “Red Flags of Incapacity”, I mentioned that certain barriers and physical changes associated with aging can be mistaken for signs of incapacity. As professionals, we need to be able to separate these from actual signs of incapacity, and work to reduce or eliminate their…
As professionals, we need to be alert to signs of incapacity in our clients, and we need to remember that some barriers to communication may look like signs of incapacity.
A person who is over the age of 18 is presumed to be capable of entering into a contract, and the rest of the world is entitled to rely upon this presumption unless they have reasonable grounds to believe otherwise. However, the court in England was recently asked the question of whether a solicitor dealing with an elderly person had “no reasonable grounds to suspect incapacity”; to prove the negative and to set a standard with respect to the issue of contemporaneous notes.
Twenty years from now seniors are expected to account for 25% of Canada’s total population. How will the legal community meet the needs of Canada’s aging population?