Capacity and Personal Care

Capacity is decision-specific. The critical question to ask is, capacity to do what?

Capacity to manage one’s personal care is a specific legal test, described in the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 in Ontario.

To have capacity to make one’s own personal care decisions, one must:

• understand information that is relevant to making a decision concerning one’s health care, nutrition, shelter, clothing, hygiene or safety, and
• be able to appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of a decision or lack of decision.

Capacity to make a POA for personal care is a separate legal test and requires less capacity than managing one’s personal care.

To make a Power of Attorney, one must:

• understand whether the proposed attorney for personal care has a genuine concern for one’s welfare, and
• appreciate that the appointed attorney may have to make personal care decisions for them.

See Also: POA Capacity Assessment: Capacity Assessors and Cost