Understanding and Teaching the Mental Capacity Act and In Memoriam Rachel Griffiths MBE

My friend Rachel Griffiths died on Christmas Eve, and I've felt the need to write the attached PDF. Rachel was very active in trying to get clinicians to apply the Mental Capacity Act correctly, as is revealed by comments after she died

https://rachel-griffiths-1948-2025.muchloved.com/

I will be adding posts to this thread, and the PDF is in effect an open letter to four other people: Lucy, Mark, Alex and Ben. I'll be sending the PDF to them, and I don't fully identify them in the PDF - three are lawyers and one is an end-of-life doctor.

What really annoys me about the current situation, is that IF RELATIVES UNDERSTOOD THE MCA AND RELATED LAWS THEN THE BEHAVIOUR OF CLINICIANS WOULD HAVE TO CHANGE ALMOST OVERNIGHT: but it isn't changing, because understanding of the MCA/law is so poor among patients and families.

That frustrates me, and it frustrated my much-missed friend Rachel.

As usual, contributions to this thread are very welcome.