Practical Guidance for Navigating Capacity, Supported Decision-Making and the OT Role

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Build confidence navigating capacity and decision-making in aged care. Learn practical approaches to assessing decision-making capacity, supporting autonomy, clarifying OT roles, and navigating consent, risk and complex decisions under Support at Home.

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Decision-making capacity is one of the most complex areas Occupational Therapists encounter in aged care.

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A client may be living with cognitive impairment, making decisions others consider unsafe, refusing recommended supports, or experiencing pressure from family members. OTs can quickly find themselves being asked: Does this person have capacity? Can they make this decision? What should we do next?

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Under contemporary aged care legislation, there is also increasing emphasis on supported decision-making, autonomy, dignity of risk and respecting a person's will and preferences.

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Designed specifically for Occupational Therapists working with older adults, this practical on-demand webinar explores what capacity means, the OT's role in assessment and how to approach complex decision-making situations in everyday practice.

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Rather than providing a single capacity "test", you'll learn how to gather and interpret functional information, support a person's decision-making and clearly communicate the limits and contribution of your OT assessment.

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Why This Webinar Matters

Cognitive impairment does not automatically mean that someone lacks decision-making capacity. Likewise, making a decision that clinicians or family members consider risky does not necessarily demonstrate incapacity.

The distinction matters.

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Occupational Therapists are often well placed to contribute valuable information about how a person understands, processes and applies information within the context of everyday life. But our role can become blurred with functional assessment, cognitive assessment and formal determinations about decision-making capacity.

This webinar will help you separate these concepts and develop a more structured approach to situations where capacity is uncertain.

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What You'll Learn

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Understanding Decision-Making Capacity

• What decision-making capacity means in practice.

• The principles underpinning capacity assessment.

• Understanding that capacity is decision-specific and time-specific.

• Distinguishing cognitive impairment from decision-making incapacity.

• Separating functional capacity from capacity to make a decision about that function.

• Recognising the influence of communication, cognition, environment and context.

 

The Occupational Therapy Role

• Where Occupational Therapy contributes to capacity assessment.

• Understanding the difference between assessing cognition, function and decision-making capacity.

• Gathering functional evidence relevant to a person's decision-making.

• Using observation, interview and occupational performance to inform clinical reasoning.

• Understanding the limits of your role and when further assessment or referral may be required.

 

Supported Decision-Making

• Moving from "Does this person have capacity?" to "What support does this person need to make this decision?"

• Identifying strategies that maximise a person's ability to understand and participate.

• Adapting communication, information and the environment.

• Understanding a person's will, preferences and values.

• Applying least-restrictive and rights-based approaches.

 

Documentation and Clinical Reasoning

• Documenting observations relevant to decision-making capacity.

• Separating facts, observations, collateral information and clinical interpretation.

• Demonstrating how information was presented and what support was provided.

• Recording the person's own reasoning, preferences and choices.

• Developing clear, defensible documentation when capacity is uncertain.

 

What You'll Walk Away With

 

By the end of this webinar you'll have:

• A clearer understanding of decision-making capacity and how it differs from cognition and functional ability.

• Greater confidence identifying the Occupational Therapist's role in capacity-related situations.

• A practical framework for gathering evidence relevant to decision-making capacity.

• Strategies for maximising and supporting a person's decision-making ability.

• Greater confidence navigating dignity of risk when capacity is uncertain.

• Practical approaches for working through complex family and substitute decision-making situations.

• Stronger documentation and clinical reasoning when concerns about capacity arise.

• Greater clarity about when to manage within your OT role and when escalation or referral is required.

 

Who Should Enrol?

This webinar is ideal for:

• Community aged care Occupational Therapists.

• Occupational Therapists delivering services under Support at Home.

• OTs working with people living with dementia or cognitive impairment.

• Residential aged care Occupational Therapists.

• Hospital and transitional care Occupational Therapists working with older adults.

• Team Leaders, Clinical Leads and supervisors supporting OT practice.

 

Suitable for Occupational Therapists at all experience levels.

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Why Choose This Webinar?

Capacity education can easily become dominated by legal definitions and cognitive screening tools.

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This webinar focuses on what Occupational Therapists actually need to do when capacity concerns arise in practice.

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We explore:

• Capacity versus cognition.

• Capacity versus functional performance.

• Supported rather than substitute decision-making.

• The OT contribution to capacity assessment.

• Dignity of risk and client choice.

• Family and substitute decision-maker dynamics.

• Functional observations and assessment.

• Defensible documentation.

Using practical examples and aged care scenarios, the webinar helps translate complex capacity principles into a structured approach you can apply in everyday practice.

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What's Included

• Full on-demand webinar recording.

• Downloadable presentation slides.