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CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ELDER LAW
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Sara Pon
Building Better Communities, one grant at a time
SPOTLIGHT ON GOOD WORKS Health Care Consent Tools
In 2019 the CCEL conducted a project in collaboration with the Alzheimer Society of B.C. to examine the law, policy, and practice of health care consent in the context of aging and dementia and produced a report titled “Conversations about Care: The Law and Practice of Health Care Consent for People Living with Dementia in British Columbia.”
During consultations with people living with dementia, caregivers, and health care providers, we learned that people living with dementia face barriers to being involved in decisions about their health care. Barriers included not having enough time to make decisions, health care providers not understanding the law, and all parties not having adequate support with decision-making.
The report identified a need to create education modules or tools on topics such as incapability assessment, dementia, and how to engage people living with dementia in decision-making.
In March 2020, as a second phase of work in this area, the CCEL has published a plain language booklet and a series of animated videos for people living with dementia, explaining their legal rights in health care decisionmaking. Those tools outline health care consent law, explain how dementia impacts decision-making, discuss legal rights to support with decision-making and communication, and suggest where and when to obtain legal help.
The booklet is available in English, French, Punjabi, and Chinese. The animation is a three-part series. Each video is 2 to 3 minutes.
During consultations with people living with dementia, caregivers, and health care providers, we learned that people living with dementia face barriers to being involved in decisions about their health care.
We would like to thank our tooldevelopment funders. The BC Notary Foundation funded the animated video. The Law Foundation of BC funded the original health care consent project and the legal rights booklet. The Vancouver Foundation funded the translation of the legal rights booklet into French, Punjabi, and Chinese and covered some design and printing costs.
For more information on this project and tools, please visit <www. bcli.org/project/health-care-consentaging-and-dementia-mapping-law-andpractice-in-british-columbia>. s
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