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Most Read Article - Assessment of mental capacity: a flow chart guide

sjennings29 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:32:33 +0000

Assessment of mental capacity: a flow chart guide, Psychiatric Bulletin (2007) 31: 304-307

Michael Church, Consultant Clinical and Neuropsychologist

Older Adults, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital, Heathcote Lane, Leamington Spa, CV34 6SR, email: michael.church@swarkpct.nhs.uk

Sarah Watts, Chartered Clinical Psychologist

Older Adults, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, St Michael’s Hospital, Warwick

Abstract:

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a new legal frameworkwithin which health and social care professionals (as wellas informal carers) must act when providing care and treatmentfor the estimated 2 million people in England, Wales and NorthernIreland who lack the capacity to make certain decisions forthemselves. Although the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practiceprovides comprehensive advice on good practice in assessingcapacity, it does not identify a specific process to be used.Good clinical practice depends on the exercise of clinicaljudgement within a valid and contestable process. This articleoutlines a flow chart (Fig. 1) that can be used to guide theprocess of capacity assessments in more complex cases, in linewith the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Code of Practice.

Lancashire Care staff can request the full-text of this paper, email: susan.jennings@lancashirecare.nhs.uk

A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Drugs for people not for profit

western4uk — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:56:50 +0000

Title: A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Drugs for people not for profit

The Skinny: Reported in the press as indicating that the cost of drugs will cripple the NHS and identifying the questionable ethics of big pharma in relation to the NHS this report from the think tank Compass discusses the current state of the pharmaceutical industry – particularly in relation to the UK. It draws on a large body of evidence to highlight the key issues in the pharmaceutical industry – looking specifically at rates of innovation, clinical trials, and its relationship with the medical profession. It goes on to call for an improved regulatory structure to ensure that the industry delivers the drugs we need at prices which we can afford.

Publisher: Compass

Size of Publication: 46p

Published: 29/08/2009

Even It Up! responds to RCSA Code of Practice "shoulds"

evenitup — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:00:31 +0000

Even It Up! wanted to respond Julie Mills (from the RCSA) article in Money Management yesterday (whi

New Code of Practice on privacy notices

mydonut — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:46:24 +0000

Businesses will welcome new guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on producing user-friendly privacy notices that comply with the law. Privacy notices set out how the information your organisation collects about someone – for example, because they complete a paper or online form – will be used.

Following a public consultation earlier this year, in the light of consumer research showing that half of consumers do not understand what they are signing up to when they fill in online and paper forms, the ICO has published a new Code of Practice that will help organisations provide more user-friendly privacy and marketing notices.

The guidance reminds businesses that personal information is required by law to be processed fairly, and a privacy notice should state:

the identity of the organisation in control of the processing;
the purpose or purposes for which the information will be processed; and
any further information necessary, in the specific circumstances, to enable the processing in respect of the individual to be fair.

In addition, the ICO has produced a checklist to help small businesses decide if they need to provide a privacy notice to their customers (eg where customers do not already know who they are or what they will do with personal information, including disclosing it to a third party).

Download the Code of Practice and small business checklist from the ICO website

Whistleblowing Code of Practice

nfajw — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:02:46 +0000

Sygnaliści, demaskatorzy ( whistleblowers) w polskim systemie akademickim są szczególnie narażeni na

Britain's Got Some Thinking To Do.

Gary Wood — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:37:49 +0000

A journalist friend, Paul Flowe r, has run with my post on Susan Boyle and Britain’s Got Talent and expanded on some of the issues that have been overlooked at large, which in turn has given me more food for thought.

The current debate seems to be focusing on whether contestants on Britain’s Got Talent should be subjected to psychological screening as they are with Big Brother. However, those jumping on this bandwagon seem to be missing the point that BGT and BB are two very different programmes. With BGT, people with a modicum of talent are looking for a break, whereas in BB, people without talent are chasing celebrity (at any cost). It’s also worth pointing out that if we applied the same psychological screening criterion to all ‘talent’ and celebrity, a significant percentage would be screened out.

Most of the 350 complaints received by Ofcom related to the treatment of ten year old Hollie Steel. However 80% of the complaints were about the unfairness to other contestants that she was given a second chance. Only 14% were questioning the ethics of having children on the show. The remaining 6% complained about the treatment of Susan Boyle. So for the 14% of complainants, they really need to contrast one crying ten year old with the other kids who appeared on the show. Shaheen Jafargholi gave a vocal performance that a adult would be envious of, and dancer Aiden Davis had to cope with having a moving stage sprung on him at the last minute. Then we have to consider that kids cry all the time. They get extremely upset about things that adults consider trivial. They cry and scream when they have to go to bed early and cry in supermarkets and roll around the floor and wet themselves if they can’t have sweets (I know I did).

There has been a great deal of emphasis on what the producers of BGT could be doing to protect the contestants from distress and in particular Susan Boyle. One thing that springs to mind is 24 hour protection from media intrusion but clearly that’s impractical. Of course BGT stage managed the whole thing from the outset. The run up to the audition ensured that our expectations of Susan Boyle were lowered. Judges sneered and audiences sniggered and rolled their eyes. It was a well-crafted piece of television designed to get strong reactions. We were all manipulated. However, I don’t thing anyone could have predicted the impact this few minutes of television would have, helped along by YouTube and Twitter. And exactly, who is going to regulate those? Paul Flower in his blog echoes sentiments from the first BGT winner, Paul Potts, who pointed out that he only had nine days of press attention whereas Susan Boyle had seven weeks from audition to finals.

One thing we need to turn out attention how we collectively take responsibility and rethink out attitudes to celebrity and whether we condone editors paying fortunes for ‘pap-snaps’ of people in distress. In the hotel incident with Susan Boyle in the run up to the final, two journalists allegedly deliberately set out with the intention of causing her distress. They did not report the news but created it, just for the sheer hell of it.

Susan Boyle has ‘enjoyed’ a lightning speed rise to celebrity-dom, which apparently makes her fair game. Some have commented that ’she needs to get used to it as it goes with the territory’ but few have questioned the morals of hounding someone who just ‘entered a talent contest’ a couple of months ago. It’s welcome news that the Press Complaints Commission have emailed editors reminding them of their code of practice.

Even seasoned professional media-manipulators would have had problems dealing with the media attention, speculation and intrusion Susan Boyle is receiving. Let’s hope the banality of Big Brother spectacle will provide Susan Boyle with some respite so that she can recover and pursue her dream of ‘being a professional singer’ rather than the main attraction in a media circus.

I suppose we should at least be thankful that no-one has used the term ‘subogate‘. . damn. . spoke too soon!

Links:

Online rights at work - A UNI code of practice

grohde — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:03:11 +0000

About this code Information and communication technologies are changing the way in which we keep in

Comparison sites code of practice

Chris — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:10:26 +0000

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) issued a press release recently (full version here) commenting on the proposed creation of a code of practice for comparison sites. Their stance is that buyers of insurance on comparison sites are not being treated fairly. Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) is a concept created by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) which essentially removes the ability of firms to say ‘well I followed the letter of the law’ – the concept of TCF forces them to consider the spirit of the law as well. It’s about principles rather than rules.

I’ve written before about my distrust of comparison sites (to various different degrees depending on the site) and despite the obvious bias BIBA is bound to have I can’t help but agree with them.

In January 2008, BIBA published market research which showed that:

* Over half of insurance buyers interviewed believe that customers do not fully understand the differences between each insurance policy offered via comparison websites
* 94% of insurance comparison website users do not believe that the details of what the policy covers and does not cover are explained fully
* 84% of insurance buyers said that the details of insurance policies offered via price comparison websites can be confusing
* 93% of consumers believe that insurance comparison websites should be regulated in the same way as insurance intermediaries
* 63% of buyers are nervous about purchasing from comparison websites
* 59% of insurance comparison website users believe that it was not very obvious or not obvious at all who the policy was underwritten by.

Essentially, it could be argued that comparison sites are selling complex financial products and customers need more protection from poor practices that could result in the sale of inappropriate products.

Mental Capacity Act 2005: Deprivation of liberty safeguards - Code of Practice to supplement the main Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice

sjennings29 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:15:41 +0000

Mental Capacity Act 2005: Deprivation of liberty safeguards – Code of Practice to supplement the main Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice, 1st September 2008, Department of Health

Click on the Title for full-text access

Abstract:

The deprivation of liberty safeguards Code of Practice was laid in draft before Parliament by the Lord Chancellor on 13 June 2008, in accordance with sections 42 and 43 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Code was subject to the negative Parliamentary process, and successfully completed its 40 day laying period on 22 July.

The final version of the Code was published on 26 August 2008. It is available in hard copy from The Stationery Office Bookshop.

The deprivation of liberty safeguards have been introduced into the Mental Capacity Act 2005 by the Mental Health Act 2007. It is planned that the safeguards will come into force in April 2009.
The safeguards provide a framework for approving the deprivation of liberty for people who lack the capacity to consent to treatment or care in either a hospital or care home that, in their own best interests, can only be provided in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty. The safeguards legislation contains detailed requirements about when and how deprivation of liberty may be authorised. It provides for an assessment process that must be undertaken before deprivation of liberty may be authorised and detailed arrangements for renewing and challenging the authorisation of deprivation of liberty.

The Code of Practice contains guidance on the deprivation of liberty safeguards. It is particularly intended to provide guidance for professionals involved in administering and delivering the safeguards, who are under a duty to have regard to the Code. The Code is also intended to provide information for people who are, or could become, subject to the deprivation of liberty safeguards, and for their families, friends and carers, as well as for anyone who believes that someone is being deprived of their liberty unlawfully.

Confidence in sharing

Ingrid Koehler — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:38:32 +0000

Some of those who fancy ourselves big time into blogging and social media are a little bit down on codes of practice. Maybe we see ourselves as mavericks, laws unto ourselves, hep cool cats who don’t need nobody to tell us the score. But the reality is, how roguish can you really be if you use social media to write about local government? Dominic Campbell (who admittedly seems to strike a cooler profile than I do) regrets the introduction of a social media code for civil servants:

Unfortunately, the moment that pen is put to paper and guidance is created, no matter how effective and light weight, things change and often for the worse. Guidance removes the freedom for people to think for themselves and results in situations where people download confidential files onto disc and send them through the post. Until civil servants are trusted to think for themselves, mistakes will continue to happen and the latent creative potential of the collective civil service will remain untapped, no matter how much guidance is created to give permission to behave to the contrary.

I tend to agree with Dominic actually and have always relied on common sense, but the workplace reality may be a bit different. And sometimes it’s hard for me to remember how nervous I was when I first started blogging using my professional identity.

Another part of our workplace reality is that we work in political environments. Councillors often have their well meaning efforts turned into political ammunition. Officers aren’t spared either. I’m sure we’ve all worked with councillors who seem absolutely great, committed, and easy to work with. But next thing you know, they’ve dropped you or a colleague into it in a full council session over a misunderstanding, an honest mistake or just for working on an initiative dreamt up by the “other side”. Not everyone’s like that, but hey, that’s politics. And if only nice people were elected, the council wouldn’t exactly be a representative body, would it?* So we do have to be careful and aware.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t share, and maybe a blogging code of practice would help give people the confidence and guidelines not so much to contribute, but to fall back on if they need to. An ability to say, if anyone should ask, “Hey look, I complied with the civil service code. The Government wants us to blog.”

At our community of practice development event (see all about it here on the CoP, behind a free registration wall), the issue of confidence came up several times. I asked a participant if she thought having a code would help. She thought it would. So in that vein, I propose the civil service code of practice for participation online and the BBC’s social media guidelines. They’re both common sense, concise and they’re not contradictory (mostly). I like the BBC’s approach to acknowledging that people do use different identities online and so long as you’re not blogging about work that’s ok. I’ve put the full text of both on this wiki page in the Policy and Performance Community of Practice, so that we can comment or modify the code for our own local government needs – if we so wish.

______

* a paraphrased quote from the great Molly Ivins.

Well done Next

wearfromwhere — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:27:39 +0000

Next have replied in full to the questions I sent them regarding ethical trade and the welfare of th

Implementing the White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety: enhancing confidence in healthcare professional regulators - final report and DH response to recommendations

western4uk — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:34:53 +0000

Implementing the White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety: enhancing confidence in healthcare professional regulators – final report and DH response to recommendations considers the White Paper Trust, assurance and safety: the regulation of health professionals which was concerned with enhancing public confidence in the regulators of healthcare professionals. This document contains the working group’s report on the implementation of the white paper and the Department’s response to its recommendations.

USER'S GUIDE AND CODE OF PRACTICE

Juliet — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:33:50 +0000

MENU FOR RAPID NAVIGATION… A USER’S GUIDE A CONTRIBUTOR’S ROUGH GUIDE CODE OF PRAC

Framework for Managing Choice Cooperation and Competition

western4uk — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:31:56 +0000

The Framework for Managing Choice Cooperation and Competition supports SHAs and PCTs in understanding the roles, responsibilities, values and behaviours required for the effective management of choice and competition within the NHS. The Framework is the outcome of a series of workshops and seminars with senior SHA and PCT leaders. The Framework should be read in conjunction with the
Principles and rules for Cooperation and Competition (Annex D of the 2008/9 Operating Framework) and the PCT Procurement Guide (published 16 May 2008). Additionally, the Framework signals a further series of tools and guidance for system managers to be released throughout the year.

Scottish Cat Owners Abusing Their Pets?

leatherhead — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:24:14 +0000

What other reason can there be for the Scottish Parliament’s latest document intended to establish a Code of Practice on Cat Welfare?

The code includes sections on:

Protection from pain suffering illness & disease

Although the code promotes the practice of neutering & euthanasia

Choice for Cats

The cat should have a choice of living with other cats and animals or, not! (However, they do not specify which form the cat has to complete to exercise the choice).

Cats Need to be Able to Exhibit Normal Behaviour Patterns

Like using a plastic toilet tray and having regular pedicures!

Consider Their Health & Safety at Night

Meeow….can I go out with my friend Fluffy tonight?

You couldn’t make this up. Which idiot in the Scottish Parliament decided citizens in Scotland needed this advice. Meanwhile the Scottish education system is going down the tubes, obesity is at record levels and the country is living off English tax payers.

"Don't use mental health legislation to lock untreatable people away"

sjennings29 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:14:30 +0000

Don’t use mental health legislation to lock untreatable people away, say doctors, 31st January 2008

Patients who cannot be treated are at risk of being detained in psychiatric facilities even if there is no prospect of doctors being able to provide a health benefit to them, said the BMA today (Thursday 31 January 2008), in its response¹ to the Government’s consultation on the revised draft of the 1983 Mental Health Act Code of Practice for England.The BMA is extremely concerned that, as it stands, the revised draft could pose serious ethical problems for doctors. The BMA is now calling for aspects of the draft Code of Practice to be completely rewritten, in particular the areas surrounding what constitutes ‘appropriate medical treatment’.