ArticleHealth & social care in the community2022
COVID-19 and the Mental Capacity Act in care homes: Perspectives from capacity professionals.
Article in Health & social care in the community, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Barriers and facilitators to implementation of mental capacity legislation in care homes for older adults in the United Kingdom: a mixed-methods systematic review.Age and ageing · 2025Pooled it
- Adapting the Germ Defence Web-Based Intervention to Improve Infection Prevention and Control in Care Homes: Interview Study Among Care Home Staff.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Long term care facilities in England during the COVID-19 pandemic-a scoping review of guidelines, policy and recommendations.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Mental capacity assessment in the multi-professional real world: a qualitative study of six areas of uncertainty.Wellcome open research · 2024Article
- COVID-19 and the Mental Capacity Act in care homes: Perspectives from capacity professionals.Health & social care in the community · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study explores the experiences of professionals who worked with care home residents with impaired mental capacity in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores (i) how competing risks were balanced and (ii) how the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) functioned in care homes under pandemic conditions, with particular focus on its associated Deprivations of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) systems. Between March and May 2021, we held an online survey and five focus groups aimed at professionals who worked in or with care homes during the pandemic. The study explored issues pertaining to residents with impaired mental capacity, alongside several other topics on which we report elsewhere. For this paper, we filtered data to only include responses from 'capacity professionals'. The resulting sample comprised 120 (out of 266) survey participants and 18 (out of 22) focus group participants. We performed manifest content analysis on the filtered data and found that (1) participants reported a 'massive discrepancy' between the ways different care homes balanced the risk of COVID-19 infection with the risks associated with severe restrictions. (2) Some suggested this was due to vague guidance, as well as care home type and size. Participants told us the pandemic (3) obstructed smooth operation of statutory safeguards designed to protect residents' human rights and (4) resulted in confusion about the remit of the MCA during a public health crisis. Our findings raise concerns about the impact of pandemic-related measures upon care home residents with impaired mental capacity. We urge further exploration and analysis of (a) the variability and inconsistency of restrictions applied at care homes, (b) the strain placed on key safeguards associated with the MCA, (c) uncertainty about the remit of the MCA during a public health crisis and (d) the human rights implications hereof.
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