disinherited.com recently blogged that the medical profession as a whole is woefully lacking in training and experience in the assessment of testamentary capacity.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of some of the criteria that a doctor should utilize when performing a mental state medical examinations.
The doctor should firstly obtain all of the medical and psychiatric notes will him him as well as an outline of the contents of value of the testator’s estate. This is crucial.
The assessment should always take place face-to-face, and when dealing with the elderly elderly suspected of havinag dementia, it should probably take place in the patient’s own resident so as to reduce anxiety, which can greatly affect the test results..
Many patients have fluctuating capacity scores and the doctor should test on several occasions over a period of time in order to get a more complete diagnosis
The doctor should of course keep detailed contemporaneous notes as well as be informed and instructed by the solicitor as to the legal test for capacity (Banks v. Goodfellow )
The assessment should definitely be conducted in the absence of anyone who stands to benefit from the will or who might exert influence on the testator.
This is very important in that doctors are typically under a great deal of time pressure and often allow caregivers and other interested parties to provide the history to the doctor, rather than hearing it directly from the patient’s mouth. The patient may very well be unable to express him or herself and thus get lost in the process.
Medications, language barriers, serious depression and general reluctance to be examined are also common problems confronting the physician when conducting a mental assessment of the elderly.
From a legal perspective the standard of proof for court decisions as to whether a person lacks or has testamentary capacity, is on the balance of probabilities, and not beyond a reasonable doubt as is required in criminal cases.
The doctor should understand this and perhaps approach the issue as ” is it more probable than not that this patient lacks or has testamentary capacity?”
During the assessment it is necessary that leading questions, that is questions that suggest the answer, should be avoided as much as possible.
In order to conduct a proper assessment of testamentary capacity, it is necessary to probe the mind and ask detailed questions where the answer is not suggested.
The content of previous wills should be discussed and the reasoning with respect to a new will should be elucidated, particularly where a close family member previously included in a will is now being disinherited.
The following table are the various criteria with which the doctor will individually address when performing the mental state examination:
The mental state medical examinations:
Appearance: posture, dress, personal hygiene, grooming.nonverbal communication, manner, etc
Behaviour: restlessness, threatening behaviour, degree of cooperation, etc
Mood: subjective and objective description
Affect: blunted, inappropriate, appropriate or depressed
Speech: rate {pressured or slow), volume, tone, quantity, appropriate/inappropriate content, dysarthria, or dysphasia Perception: hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory or tactile). depersonalisation or derealisation
Thought: Stream: slow (psychomotor retardation) or fast (flight of ideas)
Form: illogical, fragmented, logically connected or disjointed
Content : overvalued ideas, delusions, suicidal and homicidal thoughts, preoccupations, or phobias
Insight: patient’s awareness and understanding of the condition and treatment
Cognition: Mini Mental State Examination and other cognitive tests Judgement: response to hypothetical scenarios (e.g. what would you do
if you found a sealed, stamped and addressed envelope on the street
Rapport: demonstration of warmth, ability to partake in the
doctor-patient relationship
– See more at: http://www.disinherited.com/blog/mental-state-medical-examinations#sthash.RUJr1WKa.dpuf