LOGO
EN

Some aspects of consent and the patients’ competency to express it

Małgorzata Borkowska-Sztachańska1, Iwona Kłoszewska2, Aneta Jaroszewska1, Agnieszka Wasilewska1

Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
Psychiatr Psychol Klin 2016, 16 (2), p. 110–115
DOI: 10.15557/PiPK.2016.0016
PlumX metrics:
Streszczenie

The patient’s express consent to medical intervention regulated by Polish and international legal acts is an important right of the patient and the basis for the physician’s course of action. The lack of consent renders the physician legally liable; only in extraordinary cases stipulated by legal acts can they administer the treatment without the patient’s consent. According to the Mental Health Protection Act, three cumulative requirements must be met for the statement of consent of a mentally disordered patient to be valid: 1) the consent must be given by a person who regardless of their state of mental health is indeed capable of understanding the information included in the statement; 2) the consent must be preceded by a comprehensible explanation by the doctor of all the circumstances to which the statement relates; 3) the consent must be given without any pressure. The authors analyse the definition and elements of consent of a mentally disordered patient. They explain and differentiate between the concepts of the informed consent, discussed informed consent and freely given consent. The analysis of the views on the patient’s decision-making competency is also provided. Moreover, the authors indicate legally and factually competent persons as well as a person competent to provide the exclusive consent for medical intervention. They point at the difficulties in assessing the competency to express consent in case of patients with limited perception and cognitive dysfunction as well as mentally ill or disordered ones, and at the need to address this issue. The authors present the criteria of competency and point to their shortcomings in reference to Polish and international medical law. A particular attention is given to the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool that enables an objective evaluation of the patient’s actual competency. Instructions included in this instrument allow for the preparation of surveys assessing two types of decision-making competencies: the capacity to make decisions regarding participation in the treatment and the capacity to make decisions regarding participation in a clinical trial. Reliability and accuracy of these tools have been confirmed by studies conducted in a number of countries and in many groups of patients.

Słowa kluczowe
consent of a mentally disordered patient, competency of the patient, criteria of competency