Cognitive and functional losses are only part of the spectrum of disability experienced by persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. They also experience losses in the ability to make decisions, known as decision-making capacity. Researchers have made substantial progress in developing a model of capacity assessment that rests upon the concept of the 4 decision-making abilities: u...

The controlled attention theory of working memory capacity (WMC, Engle 2002) suggests that WMC represents a domain free limitation in the ability to control attention and is predictive of an individual's capability of staying focused, avoiding distraction and impulsive errors. In the present paper we test the predictive power of WMC in computer-based sport decision-making tasks. Experiment 1 de...

Leadership is defined as an ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals.(1) There has been an explosion of literature on leadership. In 1999 alone, more than 2,000 books on leadership were published;(2) some of them even repackaging Moses and Shakespeare as leadership gurus.(3) Even though so much has been written about leadership, there is no consensus on the right mix of qual...

Since the Rivers v. Katz decision in 1986, clinicians in New York State have been required to assess patient decision-making capacity before judicial review of petitions to administer involuntary medication. The authors examined 42 capacity assessments made by psychiatrists at a large state hospital in New York City. Although the capacity assessments were often incomplete and rarely addressed t...

CONTEXT Evaluation of the capacity of a patient to make medical decisions should occur in the context of specific medical decisions when incapacity is considered. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of incapacity and assessment accuracy in adult medicine patients without severe mental illnesses. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE and EMBASE (from their inception through April 2011) and bibliographies o...

We discuss key concepts and review 12 published research studies relevant to informed consent and decision-making capacity in the older population. The literature suggests that aging is associated with impaired decision-making capacity; the following additional factors amplify the detrimental effect of aging: lower vocabulary level, lower educational level, chronic medical illness (as in nursin...

This study developed a systematic decision-making process for water supply capacity expansion using the analytic hierarchy process. The decision-making criteria were categorized into environmental, economic, technical and socio-cultural aspects. Capacity expansion of three water resources (Kpong, Weija and Teshie plants) of Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area (Ghana) was studied as a test case. The re...

BACKGROUND The Decision-Making Capacity Assessment (DMCA) Model includes a best-practice process and tools to assess DMCA, and implementation strategies at the organizational and assessor levels to support provision of DMCAs across the care continuum. A Developmental Evaluation of the DMCA Model was conducted. METHODS A mixed methods approach was used. Survey (N = 126) and focus group (N = 49...

BACKGROUND The relationship between patients and health professionals emphasizes deliberation and joint decision making, that derives in the informed consent. AIM To evaluate decision making of patients in health care and to identify the notion of capacity for decision making, according to lawyers and physicians. MATERIAL AND METHODS A semi-structured interview about procedures to assess de...