Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

Incapacity Legislation and its Use for Older Adults in ScotlandDonald Lyons, Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland(donald.lyons@mwcscot.org.uk)The Adults with Incapacity Act for Scotland was passed in 2000. It provides a definition ofincapacity, a set of principles that must be followed and a graded series of financial and welfareinterventions. The number of new applications, especially for welfare powers, continues to rise.Deprivation of liberty issues and the provision of medical treatment for physical health remainsignificant problems. Some recent legislative changes have helped. Proposals for further reformare aimed at ensuring compatibility with human rights law, while trying to ease the burden onhealth and social care practitioners and the courts.Civil Mental Health Detentions for Older Adults in One Scottish Health RegionGary Stevenson, NHS Fife, UK (gstevenson@nhs.net)This presentation examines the emergency and short-term civil detention of older adults in oneScottish region under successive mental health legislation, with the data collected primarily byclinician-based interviews. Results indicate an initial rate of 68 increasing to 141 detentions per100,000 of the respective over-65 year age populations, a two-fold increase. Compared to theearlier patient cohort, the later cohort had higher rates of over 85-year-olds with organic mentaldisorders and higher rates of progression to six-month compulsory detention and treatmentorders (CTOs). New data will be presented on outcomes at 2-year follow-up for all adults in theregion detained on CTOs, comparing the older adult to the younger adult (under 65-year old)cohort. The observed higher rates and longer periods of detention may reflect changes in clinicalattitudes and legal requirements from a previous reliance on the common law doctrine ofnecessity to the requirements of a more legalistic framework, and may signal future clinicalrequirements, given the aging population, pointing towards the need for earlier recognition andmanagement of clinical issues in an attempt to minimize the “necessity” of clinico-legalintervention.Older People and the Criminal CourtsGraeme Yorston, St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, UK (gyorston@standrew.co.uk)Older people often get a raw deal from the criminal courts – both as victims and as perpetratorsof crime. In the past older people who were the victims of violent, sexual or property crime wereoften seen as unreliable witnesses, and prosecutors were reluctant to pursue convictions. In 2009203