AMDC Forms coming soon to courts.ie
Wednesday 26 April 2023: New ways of providing decision making support services to vulnerable members of society are available today with the commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, and Assisted Decision-Making Capacity (Amendment) Act 2022. The amending Act was developed to streamline processes and improve safeguards in the 2015 Act. Inclusive and progressive, this new legislation caters for a wide range of circumstances including, but not limited to: intellectual disability, psychiatric illness, acquired brain injury, age-related condition, such as dementia or mental illness.
The Act providesfor a long-sought after assisted decision-making process to replace the substituted decision-making process under the current Wardship system for adults. The Act presumes that everyone has capacity and provides mechanisms for demonstrating that someone might need support making decisions. The type of support needed depends on the individual’s demonstrated capacity to make decisions. Under this new approach people will need to make a Capacity Application to the Circuit Court when they are looking to appoint a decision-making representative (DMR). Forms and Rules will be available, following Ministerial sign-off, from https://www.courts.ie/assisted-decision-making-circuit-court
Existing Wards of Court will transition to the new system immediately or over a 3-year period depending on preference. After the 3-year period, the Wardship system will cease to exist for adult Wards. Please note wardship still remains in place for minor Wards.
The Act also introduces a brand-new service - the Decision Support Service which is part of the Mental Health Commission and separate from the Courts Service. The Decision Support Service promotes the rights and interests of vulnerable members of society who may need support with decision-making (https://www.decisionsupportservice.ie/).