41. TWO NEW HANDBOOKS GUIDE LAWYERS AND JUDGES THROUGH THE COMPLEXITIES OF CAPACITY ASSESSMENT OF OLDER ADULTS WITH IMPAIRED CAPACITY
With the coming demographic avalanche of Boomers reaching their 60s, while the over]80 population grows at a faster rate than any other cohort, lawyers and judges face a growing challenge: older clients with problems in decision-making capacity.
While most older adults will not have impaired capacity, some will. Severe dementias may be obvious and require the intervention of surrogate decision-makers, but what about older adults with an early stage of dementia or with mild central nervous system damage? Such clients may have subtle decisional problems and questionable judgments troubling to a lawyer or judge faced with assessing their legal capacity.
Two new handbooks, prepared by the ABA Commission on Law and Aging, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, provide practical, cutting edge guidance to lawyers and judges.
Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Lawyers offers elder law lawyers, trust and estate lawyers, family lawyers, and general practitioners a conceptual framework and practical system for addressing problems of client capacity, in some cases with help from a clinician.
Judicial Determination of Capacity of Older Adults in Guardianship Proceedings: Handbook for Judges provides judges who are faced with questions about someone’s decisional capacity or ability to manage personal or financial affairs, or about a potential risk of elder abuse, with a quick guide to the “Six Pillars of Capacity Assessment” essential to a full and accurate assessment; a practical explanation of five key steps in judicial determination of capacity; and links to expanded information, work sheets, model forms, and fact sheets available online at no charge. The format provides a layered information approach that enables judges to go as far as you need to on any aspect of capacity assessment.
Both handbooks are available from the Commission on Law and Aging.
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