Psychiatry and the law: Perspectives in geriatric borderline personality disorder

Clinicians are often called upon to assess mental capacity of older adults in contexts involving civil and criminal law. Assessing decisional capacity is an important, yet complex and individualized task that involves medical, legal, and ethical considerations. Cognitive and personality issues influence the nature and process of how individuals make decisions, and how clinicians conduct capacity assessments of older adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Using a clinical scenario, this chapter highlights some of the practices, safeguards, and obligations in assessing mental capacity, particularly in the context of forensic psychiatry, specific to older adults with BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)