Adults with incapacity reform: easy-read version of consultation

1. Adults with Incapacity

We think of adults as people who can make decisions about their own lives.

But some adults can't make those decisions. We call these 'adults with incapacity'.

This could be because of a brain injury, a mental illness, a stroke or learning disability. Most people in Scotland who cannot make decisions for themselves have dementia.

Adults with incapacity still know what is going on around them and they should be fully involved in life decisions.

The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 set up ways to protect adults over the age of 16 who could not make some or all decisions for themselves. This included ways to manage their money and the things they owned. This was only done if the decisions were for the good of the adult with incapacity.

All the wishes of the adult should be listened to when making decisions about them.

Since 2000 we have started to look at peoples' human rights differently. Some people now think that the law does not fully protect the human rights of adults with incapacity.

If someone is being kept in a care home or hospital and is not able to agree to this, they might be having their human rights taken away from them.