Any wishes that you express concerning your future personal care will take effect only if you become incapable of making the relevant personal care decision for yourself.

Your substitute decision-maker only makes decisions for you that you are not capable of making yourself. If you remain capable of making some or any personal care decisions, then you continue to do so.

Who decides if a person is no longer capable of making decisions?

• The health care provider offering the treatment to you decides whether you are capable or not of making decisions about your medical treatment, admission to a long-term care facility or personal assistance services in a long-term care facility.
  
  This kind of assessment is ongoing, rather than a one-time event, because your ability to make decisions can vary greatly with your condition, from month to month, week to week, or even day to day. It can also vary with the type of decision to be made. 
• For other personal care decisions you have two options.
  • Your substitute decision-maker can decide whether you are capable of making the decision or not.

   

  OR

  • You may prefer to have an independent confirmation of your mental incapacity with regard to personal care decisions.
• You can state that wish in a document called a Power of Attorney for Personal Care. If you do this, the person you name as your attorney for personal care cannot start making decisions for you until the independent confirmation is made.
   
• In the Power of Attorney for Personal Care you can name a person close to you to provide the independent confirmation of your incapacity to make personal care decisions-for example, your family doctor or a good friend. Or you can specify a certain kind of professional, such as a psychologist or social worker. If you ask for an independent confirmation of incapacity without specifying who you would like to provide it, a professional capacity assessor will provide that independent confirmation.

What if you disagree with a health practitioner's finding of your mental incapacity?

You can appeal a finding of mental incapacity to the Consent and Capacity Board, which is an independent body created by the Ontario government. Its members can be psychiatrists, lawyers, or members of the public.

Among other things, the board can hold a hearing to review your capacity to make decisions about health treatment, personal assistance services, or admission to a long-term care facility. There is no charge to go to the Consent and Capacity Board.

For more information, contact the Consent and Capacity Board.

Telephone: 416-327-4142
Website: www.ccboard.on.ca