Decision Making and Your Rights

The law says we must presume that adults have ‘capacity’ to make decisions for themselves unless proven otherwise. Everyone wants to make their own decisions about things that affect their lives and not be controlled by others.

This tool helps explain capacity and rights. Capacity to make decisions may be affected by factors such as stress, illness, injury or age. Loss of capacity may be total or partial, permanent or temporary. The law recognises that you may have lost capacity to make some complex decisions, but not others. For example, you may not have capacity to understand complicated financial arrangements or make a Will, but you may still be able to decide your medical treatment and where you want to live.

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