Law, Ethics and Safeguarding in Dementia Care for Medical Doctors

This session provides an overview of your duty of care to ensure safe practice. It describes the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act which include that you are to always act in the best interests of people living with dementia who may lack capacity to make a particular decision. It discusses the requirement that you can recognise and act on neglect, abuse or exploitation in your or your colleagues' practice with reference to safeguarding procedures.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Enable people living with dementia to exercise choice regarding their care and treatment
• Recommend what to do if someone living with dementia lacks capacity to make a specific decision
• Explain how duty of care contributes to safe practice
• Recognise and act upon your safeguarding concerns in order to uphold human rights
• Describe the key legislation relevant to care for people living with dementia

In this session, we will explore the legal frameworks which guide dementia care and how to involve people living with dementia and their families in decision making, including in circumstances when the person living with dementia lacks capacity. We will explore your duty of care and your role in safeguarding vulnerable adults.

This session has been mapped to the Dementia Training Standards Framework and is designed to support the Dementia Action Alliance Dementia Statements.