The Assisted Decision-making Capacity Act, 2015: reflections for the profession of social work

The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 will provide the legal framework to maximise a person’s right to make their own decisions, with legally recognised supports. Once commenced, this significant piece of legislation will change everyone’s approach when working with and supporting people whose capacity is in question. This collection of essays, written from both personal and professional perspectives, highlights the importance of this ground-breaking piece of legislation. The powerful essays demonstrate the scale of impact that the Act may have on people’s lives — from the ability to write a legally binding advance healthcare directive to being supported to make their own decisions if they have difficulties with decision-making capacity. The idea for this collection of essays emerged from a conference held in University College Cork in November 2019, which was jointly organised by the Decision Support Service; the HSE National Office for Human Rights and Equality; and the Law School at UCC. The conference was intended to draw attention to the ongoing delays in commencing the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (the 2015 Act). At that time, there was no clear line to commencement and a growing concern that there was no political imperative to take the steps needed to bring the 2015 Act into force. We wanted to provide a reminder of the unsustainability of the current legal structures, the importance of the 2015 Act and why political procrastination had to stop.