007 Capacity with Dr. Charles Surber

Episode 7 - Assessment of Decision Making Capacity Today’s show is about how to resolve competing interests when a patient wants to do one thing, but the medical team thinks something else would be better. For example, what happens when you have a patient who has a bad infection and needs a surgery to survive, but the patient is refusing the surgery? The surgical team wants to operate, but the patient says no, though it appears the patient is a little confused and may not quite understand the situation. How do you reconcile these differences of opinion and figure out how to proceed? We will explore this topic of assessing decision making capacity, often just called capacity for short, on this episode. To help explore this topic, we will again be joined by Dr. Charles Surber of the University of Michigan. This episode is most likely to be helpful for clinical students currently doing a psychiatry rotation, particularly on a consult-liaison service. Pre-clinical students might also find it helpful. Others who may find it useful include psychiatric residents, especially early in residency. Other physicians who consult psychiatry on their patients may also find this material helpful.