Giving voice to people with communication disabilities during mental capacity assessments.

This study highlights that non-speech and language therapist health professionals have difficulty identifying and screening for communication difficulties. This confirms existing evidence that people with communication disabilities may not receive the decision-making support they require during mental capacity assessments when speech and language therapists are not involved. Greater understanding of health professionals' thought processes regarding communication is required to further develop this unique communication screening tool so that it can effectively enable healthcare professionals to identify and use communicative adaptations to support decision-making. What this paper adds What is already known on this subject Limited previous research suggests that assessing the mental capacity of people with communication disabilities is complex. Practice needs to be improved to ensure this group is adequately supported to make decisions, in line with legal requirements. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This paper describes the development and testing of a novel communication screening tool for use by healthcare professionals preparing to undertake mental capacity assessments. It increases our understanding of how healthcare professionals without specialist training understand communication disability and the role of the speech and language therapist in relation to mental capacity assessment. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Healthcare professionals without specialist training require support to understand and respond to the needs of people with communication disabilities during mental capacity assessments. With further development and testing, in response to initial evaluation, this novel communication screening tool may be able to provide this support.