In this episode, we will discuss how to assess decisional capacity using the widely referenced New England Journal of Medicine article by Dr. Paul Applebaum as our framework. We’ll review the four relevant criteria to assessing decision making capacity. We’ll also discuss several other common questions that often come up with capacity: How is decisional capacity different than competency? Why might someone not have capacity? And what do you do when someone doesn’t have decisional capacity? We will explore these issues with multiple clinical vignette and examples.

Photo credit: Mathias Pastwa, “The Understanding,” Flickr

Episode Music Credit: Javier Suárez, Tumbling Dishes, Better With Music