Mental capacity is a person’s ability to understand information, make decisions, and communicate their wishes. A mental capacity assessment should be carried out if there are concerns that a person is not able to make their own decisions – if they have dementia; a severe learning disability; a brain injury or a mental health condition for example. But just because a person has such a condition it will not always mean they lack the mental capacity to make a specific decision. They may not be able to make decisions about more complicated issues (for example which bank to save money with) but may be able to make other decisions, such as what they want to buy in a shop.
