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Capacity to Access Social Media
Social media is a large part of modern life and can be an excellent way for people to stay in touch, create new relationships, and engage in communities. As technology advances, access to social media creates different choices, risks and opportunities for individuals.
What the law says
Our bespoke assessment is based on the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and relevant case law identified in 2019. Our aim is to promote independence while adhering to the act’s principles, to make sure every practicable step is taken to allow individuals to make their own choices when it comes to accessing social media.
Your Questions Answered
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What to expect
Our assessments usually take around an hour, and our friendly, experienced social workers do their best to make sure it's a comfortable and relaxed experience. We're accredited expert mental capacity assessors, so you're in good hands.
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What's Included in the assessment?
Everything necessary is included, an assessment either face to face or via video link as well as a corresponding report. Where necessary our Social Workers will complete additional assessments such as a Montreal cognitive assessment and a financial decision tracker to strengthen their reports at no additional cos
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Why Choose Nellie?
We have worked with official court solicitors to create a bespoke assessment report to assess and record the mental capacity of an adult to engage in court proceedings in the Family Court, the High Court, a county court, or the Court of Appeal.
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Who can complete a mental capacity assessment?
In cases involving complex or major decisions, you may need to get a professional opinion. The assessor must be an impartial, qualified professional, such as a doctor, nurse, or social worker.
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Can we complete video-link or face to face assessments?
All of our international mental capacity assessments are completed vie our bespoke, integrated and secure video link software. Any easy to use and simple system
Accreditations
Social Work England is a specialist body taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. All of our Social Workers are registered with Social Work England for your peace of mind.
Our assessors are accredited Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) assessors with specific experience in completing capacity assessments and specialist reports.
All of our assessors have undergone extra training to become accredited financial vulnerability experts according to Lichtenberg standards, so they can provide even more detailed reports on mental capacity.
CASE STUDY
Oliver lives with Asperger's and lives in a supported living accommodation, Oliver gets on well with staff and has some great friends, one of Oliver's passions is gaming which has led to him spending a large amount of time online, including on Social Media apps such as Reddit.
As part of Oliver's personality, he can become fixated and staff at the supported living complex have become concerned about Oliver being vulnerable to extremist views on social media; he has recently made some remarks to female staff, which was unlike Oliver.
Care staff at the unit spoke to Oliver's Mum and arranged an independent Mental Capacity Assessment with our team.
Our Social Worker initially met with Oliver and his Mum and then later with Oliver alone. Through completing a relaxed and therapeutic assessment, our Social Worker was able to evidence that while Oliver was highly proficient with using IT Systems, he struggled to weigh up the risks around social media; Oliver struggled to understand what was being said was not always true and was unable to weigh his own knowledge with that of the information being given to him via social media.
Accessing social media remained important to Oliver, so while it was evident, Oliver lacked the sufficient mental capacity to access social media; our team worked with Oliver, his support team and his Mum to ensure he still retained this freedom but in a safe, controlled way.
