What steps should be taken to evaluate mental capacity, medically and legally?
gregmoss1954@sbcglobal.net asked:
78-year-old widower (recent) who can no longer rely on just-deceased wife. This person is living alone in a large house, and attempting to take care of a sizable estate. He cannot remember details well that happened recently, but can recall events from distant past. He repeats himself constantly–sometimes asks the same question three to five times in an hour. He does not remember responses for very long. His short-term memory, to use a crude example, is much like an etch-a-sketch that is imprinted briefly and then erased. He is a sitting duck for potential elder abuse, but he has a combative type-A personality that cannot admit he’s wrong or, of course, remember that something salient occurred in the very recent past. It takes him a very long time to read, comprehend, manipulate, process simple transactions–it’s a process of saying the words out loud, over and over, and sort of rehearsing the task at hand before doing it. Notes he writes to himself quickly have no meaning.
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78-year-old widower (recent) who can no longer rely on just-deceased wife. This person is living alone in a large house, and attempting to take care of a sizable estate. He cannot remember details well that happened recently, but can recall events from distant past. He repeats himself constantly–sometimes asks the same question three to five times in an hour. He does not remember responses for very long. His short-term memory, to use a crude example, is much like an etch-a-sketch that is imprinted briefly and then erased. He is a sitting duck for potential elder abuse, but he has a combative type-A personality that cannot admit he’s wrong or, of course, remember that something salient occurred in the very recent past. It takes him a very long time to read, comprehend, manipulate, process simple transactions–it’s a process of saying the words out loud, over and over, and sort of rehearsing the task at hand before doing it. Notes he writes to himself quickly have no meaning.
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February 23rd, 2011 at 5:45 pm
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I believe a dr. has to evaluate the person in question and declare him incompetent to care for himself. I believe that is when someone is given power of attorney over him, to help him make decisions on what is best for him.
February 24th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
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A G.P will be able to refer this man to a clinical psychologist or other specialist who is able to give a formal diagnosis (which sounds very much like it is a matter of short-term memory deterioration related to ageing, rather than anything pathological). This specialist will then be able to advise further on what should be done.