What do greeks believe about elders and mental capacity?

AuthorVaitsa Giannouli
PositionSchool of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Pages1-5
AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, www.juridicalj ournal.univagora.ro
ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677
No. 3 (2014), pp. 1-5
1
WHAT DO GREEKS BELIEVE ABOUT ELDERS AND MENTAL
CAPACITY?
V. Giannouli
Vaitsa Giannouli
School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
*Correspondence: School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki
54124
Email: giannouliv@hotmail.com
Abstract: Despite the plethora of studies abroad, in Greece views on individuals with
intellectual disabilities and older persons with mental health problems is not a well
investigated topic. The results of the present study reveal that generally acts with financial-
legal implications (mainly financial decision-making capacity) ar e of concern to the
participants, as they consider this sort of capacity the main predictor for legal (in)capacity on
the whole, especially when they consider elderly patients. Participants have doubts about the
appropriateness of the current assessment methods followed by forensic psychiatrists and
psychologists in Greece and hope for future improvements in the field of legal capacity
assessment. In addition to that participants seem to welcome any form of provided
information (live lectures from conferences, videos, interviews, discussion forums and texts)
from experts with an emphasis on issues for elders. No significant differences were found in
the expressed views based on gender or age, but subtle differences were found according to
educational level.
Keywords: attitudes, mental capacity, law, elders, Greece.
Introduction
In health care there is an ever growing interest in elderly patients suffering
neurological or psychiatric disorders
1
. However, legal issues concerning not only the clinical,
but also the legal, aspects of these patients are not adequately represented in everyday
discourse. More specifically, the evaluation of mental or decision-making capacity regarding
medical and legal issues still remains a hard problem to solve and therefore seems to be
neglected. Children, adults and elders, patients or not, must have the capacity to receive,
comprehend and utilize the information with which they have been provided, not only in
dealing with ever yday problems, but also in clinical and legal settings
2
. Legal capacit y is a
person's capability and power under law to engage in a particular undertaking or transaction
or to maintain a particular status or relationship with another person and for this reason it
constitutes a critical intersection of law and clinical practice
3
. Legal capacity is linked and
interchangeably used with the term civil capacity. Civil capacity assessment can take many
1
Capisizu A, Aurelian SM, Bogdan C. Medical and legal aspects of elderly patients with
dementia. Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine. 2014; 22: 51-54.
2
Tepper AM, Elwork A. Competence to consent to treatment as a psycholegal construct. Law
and Human Behavior. 1984; 8: 205-223.
Alzheimer Europe. Greece: Legal capacity and proxy decision making. 2010. Chapter
accessed online on 10 April 2014 http://www.alzheimer-europe.org/Policy-in-
Practice2/Country-comparisons/Legal-capacity-and-proxy-decision-making/Greece

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