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Advocacy in Mind
Rochdale & District Mind
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy Services
(IMCA)
IMCA - Referral information
Procedure date – 18/11/11
Review date – 18/11/12
1.1 Availability
The Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) Service is available to residents in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale and operates Monday to Friday 9.15am-5pm.
1.2 Referral
To make a referral please fill in our online referral from. You can contact us by phone, email or fax:
Tel - 01706 752350
Fax - 01706 353281
Email - imca@rochdalemind.org.uk
1.3 Decision Maker
Anybody can refer to the IMCA service; however the service must gain instruction form the “Decision maker” as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2007.
1.4 The Decision Maker will need to complete a referral form. This is available on request and is available on the Rochdale & District Mind website. The Decision Maker will also need their manager’s authorisation as agreed in the local policy. A written assessment of mental capacity is also good practice.
1.5 Before making a referral please refer to the guiding principles of the Mental Capacity Act.
1.6 We will accept referrals for people who are currently residing in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale.
1.7 The information is “screened” to establish whether the person meets the criteria on the day the referral is received. It can then be allocated quickly or signposted to other services where necessary.
1.8 Response Time
All referrals will be acknowledged when received and work will commence within 5 working days at the latest. “Urgent DOLS” will be dealt with within 7 days as required by The Mental Capacity Act.
1.9 Information service
We also provide an information service to guide potential referrers and will accept enquiries from mental health professionals, carers and other agencies.
Criteria:
An IMCA must be instructed and then consulted, for people lacking capacity who have no appropriate family, friends, carers (other than paid staff) to support them whenever:
1. An NHS body is proposing to provide serious medical treatment (section 37).
2. An NHS body or local authority is proposing to arrange accommodation (or a change of accommodation) in hospital or a care home, and the person will stay in hospital longer than 28 days, or they will stay in the care home for more than eight weeks (section 38 & 39).
An IMCA may be instructed by the Local Authority to support someone who lacks capacity to make decisions concerning:
3. Care reviews, where no-one else is available to be consulted
4. Adult protection cases, whether or not family, friends or others are involved.
5. Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DOLS)
The safeguards apply to people in England and Wales who have a mental disorder and lack capacity to consent to the arrangements made for their care or treatment, but for whom receiving care or treatment in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty may be necessary to protect them from harm and appears to be in their best interests. A large number of these people will be those with significant learning disabilities, or older people who have dementia or some similar disability, but they can also include those who have certain other neurological conditions (for example as a result of a brain injury).
In order to come within the scope of a deprivation of liberty authorisation, a person must be detained in a hospital or care home, for the purpose of being given care or treatment in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty. The authorisation must relate to the individual concerned and to the hospital or care home in which they are detained.
For the purposes of Article 5 of the ECHR, there is no distinction in principle between depriving a person who lacks capacity of their liberty for the purpose of treating them for a physical condition, and depriving them of their liberty for treatment of a mental disorder. There will therefore be occasions when people who lack capacity to consent to admission are taken to hospital for treatment of physical illnesses or injuries, and then need to be cared for in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty. In these circumstances, a deprivation of liberty authorisation must be applied for.
