This chapter is designed to assist the clinician faced with the issues to consider the broad
range of capacities that may be of concern, the many cognitive and noncognitive factors that …

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the conceptual and empirical basis for the
assessment of legal capacities in older adults. Legal capacities (formerly called …

Holly Tuokko Centre on Aging and Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria,
BC, Canada V8W 2Y2 In the professional literature, the termcompetency'has been used in a …

Over the past 40 years, the assessment and scientific study of capacity in older adults has
emerged as a distinct field of clinical and research activity for psychologists. This new field …

Although an individual's competence can come into question at any stage during the life
cycle, each stage brings with it certain developmental tasks and vulnerabilities that can …

Aging necessarily brings with it changes in one's functional abilities, and this often occurs in
the setting of declining cognition. Changes in mental capacities may be subtle, even almost …

The three articles in this special section address emerging issues in assessment and
management of competency for older people. These articles re ect perspectives from the …

Among the many losses that a patient with dementia inevitably experiences is loss of
competency. The patient with a degenerative dementia experiences gradual and …

Back to the Future of Mental Capacity Assessment Page 1 JAGS 50:1884–1885, 2002 © 2002
by the American Geriatrics Society 0002-8614/02/$15.00 Back to the Future of Mental Capacity …

Capacity to make one's own decisions is fundamental to the autonomy of the individual.
Capacity is a functional assessment made by a clinician to determine if a patient is capable …