'Fear' of assisted decision-making laws may explain spike in wards of court
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 replaces the Lunacy Act 1871 and includes phasing out the ward-of-court system. File Picture.
Fear of new assisted decision-making legislation may have been behind a rush to make more than 200 people wards of court early last year, the National Advocacy Service said.
It is now one year since the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was commenced.
This aims to support people with reduced capacity, including acquired brain injuries or dementia as well as intellectual disabilities, to make decisions such as where to live.
NAS national manager Joanne Condon said this is a culture shift.
“People were traditionally more used to others making decisions on their behalf,” she said.
Change is hard, she said, adding: “We wouldn’t exist as a service if there wasn’t opposition.
“If everybody was heard and they were all involved in decisions about their life, we wouldn’t have worked with 379 people [in the last year] who clearly needed support to have their voice heard.”
This replaces the Lunacy Act 1871 and includes phasing out the ward-of-court system.
Wardship, she said, strips all decision-making rights from people.
New applications have not been accepted since April 26 last year.
“Between the first of January and the 25th of April, 2023, more than 200 people entered wardship,” she said.
“You would have anticipated a slowing down of applications for wardship in anticipation of the new progressive act coming, but actually there was a mass rush towards entering people into wardship. A lot of that was probably fear — fear of a new system.”
She added: “There was this panic where quite a lot of applications were made in the run-up to the introduction of the act.”
Applications could be withdrawn and the person given the option of new supports instead, but, she said: “That was never availed of, so that’s quite interesting.”
The act also indicates that existing wardships will be reviewed. However, Ms Condon said take-up “has been very, very slow” so far.
“As of February, the Ward of Court Office confirmed that there had been only 90 applications for discharge from wardship and 29 discharge orders that had actually gone through,” she said.
“When you have thousands of wards of courts, that is a very small number. So 2,160 is the figure that the Ward of Court office gave.”
Among the people NAS advocates have helped are those wishing to move out of institutions.
“If you have many family members or even staff in that residential service who feel that is too risky, that’s unwise or [they say:] ‘Oh, Jack could never live independently, hasn’t he lived in a campus for the last 30 years’, then the act places an onus on providing support to enable somebody to make their own decision.”
The advocate can help someone do this safely.
NAS is funded by the Citizens Information Board, and last year worked with more than 1,000 people on issues including this act and others.
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act will place an obligation on anyone interacting with a person, including a person with a disability, to presume they have the capacity to make their own decisions, to support their decision-making, to understand their right to make an unwise decision, and to intervene only where necessary and when it respects the person’s rights.
This includes providing decision-making support to people with reduced capacity, such as those with acquired brain injuries or dementia.
NAS Advocates ensure that a person’s will and preference is adhered to in all decisions that affect their lives and provide decision-making support in wardship cases.
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