January Clinical Grand Rounds: "The Assessment of Decision-Making Capacity in Adults”

Our January Clinical Grand Rounds will be on, "The Assessment of Decision-Making Capacity in Adults” and will be presented by Dr. Cristina Sanchez-Torres, Board-Certified Adult and Child Psychiatrist.
Synopsis & objectives:
At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants will:
1) ​Acquire knowledge of the process of obtaining informed consent.
2) ​Define the terms competence and capacity.
3) ​Learn the skills necessary to assess capacity
4) ​Apply the four abilities model of criteria for decision-making capacity
5) ​List relevant questions to ask consultees and patients in a capacity evaluation for decision-making.
6) ​Explain the use of substitute decision-makers.
Post-test Questions:
1.​Who should assess capacity?
a.​Treating physician is often the best choice
b.​Consultation with psychiatry is appropriate in difficult cases in which there is a high risk of reaching a faulty conclusion
2.​What should the consultant know before seeing the patient?
a.​Why is the consult being requested?
b.​Why do you think the patient may lack capacity?
c.​What is the patient’s medical situation?
d.​What are the treatment choices faced? Risks and benefits of these choices?
e.​What has already been communicated to the patient?
d.​Capacity to make what specific decision?
3.​Patients are allowed to make bad decisions, and decisions you might not agree with- and they can still be judged as capable of making the decision (True)