Steve Hardy

The Mental Capacity Act: practicalities for health and social care professionals

The Mental Capacity Act (2005) is now in full operation in England and Wales. In this article, some of the common questions that professionals face on a day‐to‐day basis are discussed, including how to assess capacity and decide whether or not someone has capacity, what to do if someone lacks capacity and what could happen if someone does not follow the Mental Capacity Act.

MHiLD: a model of specialist mental health services for people with learning disabilities

There are high rates of emotional, behavioural and psychiatric problems (Cooper et al, 2007) in the learning disability population. This paper describes the Mental Health in Learning Disabilities (MHiLD) service for adults with learning disabilities in four South London boroughs. This service has been in operation in two South East London boroughs from 1982, and was extended to a third in 1999 and a fourth in 2006.

Barriers to user involvement in mental health services for people with learning disability

This paper explores some of the issues and barriers to service user involvement for people with learning disability in mental health settings. In particular the paper focuses on barriers to involvement including staff attitudes and the involvement of service users in their own assessment and treatment. The issue of getting people involved in their own care is addressed and is highlighted using examples of good practice.