New Project Announced: Health Care Consent and Capacity Assessment Tribunals Project
November 19, 2019
BY Greg Blue
BCLI and CCEL have started a new project on health care, guardianship, and capacity tribunals.
The Health Care Consent and Capacity Assessment Tribunals Project follows upon a finding and recommendation in a recent Canadian Centre for Elder Law report, Conversations About Care: The Law and Practice of Health Care Consent for People Living with Dementia in British Columbia (2019). That report identified a need for an accessible and expeditious mechanism in British Columbia for challenging findings of mental incapability to consent to health care or care facility admission, and for resolving disputes related to substitute decision making for persons incapable of giving or refusing consent.
The project involves consultation and comparative research into health care, guardianship, and capacity tribunals in Canada and abroad. It will lead to publication of a study paper that can serve as an informational base for policymakers and legislators to consider the relative merits of creating a health care consent and capacity assessment review tribunal appropriate for British Columbia.
The Health Care Consent and Capacity Assessment Tribunals Project is funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia.