Practice of Competence Assessment in Dementia: Norway

Abstract

In the discussion about legislation and dementia in Europe, it seems there exist an agreement that the terms “competence” and “incompetence” should be restricted to a person’s legal status, whereas physicians should use terms like “capacity” and “incapacity” when evaluating a person’s mental status (Post and Whitehouse, 1995). However, some authors prefer to use the terms “capacity” or “incapacity” for legal status (Gove and Georges, 2001; Jones, 2001). Thus, “capacity” and “competence” are used as synonyms in legal terminology. In cases when a person is incompetent, most Western countries have legal provisions that allow for the appointment of a guardian to handle an adult person’s welfare and financial interests (Gove and Georges, 2001; Kapp, 2001). Apart from that, medical treatment, care or admission to an institution without the patient’s consent is usually part of the mental health legislation.