- Entitlement and access to public health care services
- Medical treatment: consent and withdrawal
- Advance Directives
- Taking care of a mentally incapacitated person: Guardianship or Committee
- The mentally incapacitated person
- Guardianship vs Committee
- Guardianship – When to appoint a Guardian?
- Guardianship – Who can be the Guardian?
- Guardianship – The application
- The Guardianship Order
- Emergency Guardianship Order
- Committee for a mentally incapacitated person
- Committee – The application
- The Order appointing a Committee
- Court’s powers in cases of emergency
- Enduring Power of Attorney
- Elder abuse
- Medical negligence
- Medical insurance
- Care by residential care homes for elderly persons
Taking care of a mentally incapacitated person: Guardianship or Committee
The mentally incapacitated person
The Mental Health Ordinance (Chapter 136 of the Laws of Hong Kong) is the major statute in Hong Kong which deals with persons who are mentally incapacitated. The Ordinance defines “mental incapacity” as either a mental disorder or mental handicap. That may sound remote to us because few of us are mentally disordered or mentally handicapped and few of us are likely to have any friends or relatives who are mentally disordered or mentally handicapped. However, as we age, none of us can be certain we will not, sooner or later, be subject to dementia, which turns a fully capable, intelligent person into a mentally incapacitated one.
It is, therefore, not a bad idea for older people and their families to get some insights about what the Mental Health Ordinance (Chapter 136 of the Laws of Hong Kong) may offer to assist a mentally incapacitated person and their family and relatives.
