Dr. Eileen Kohutis
In civil law cases, attorneys sometimes need a psychologist’s help to conduct capacity assessments when they have concerns about an older person ability to complete a specific transaction and/or when an older person may be subject to undue influence.
Capacity assessments are typically sought for older adults, who may be demonstrating cognitive and/or personality changes, for adults who have a developmental disability, or for adults with a serious mental illness. These assessments focus on specific capacities, such as the capacity to manage his/her own finances, the capacity to enter into contracts, and the capacity to consent to medical treatment.
Additionally, the psychologist will also consider undue influence as a factor that may be associated with changes in an older adult’s decisions. The psychologist will also consider the older adult’s individual beliefs, decisional preferences and risk in a situation and environmental support. These relate to hypotheses that will either be supported or disconfirmed based on the other sources of information. The capacity assessment will synthesize the data from the various informational sources, test data, and interviews about the specific capacity being assessed.
When psychologists conduct these evaluations, they interview the client, review medical files and legal documents, contact collaterals, and administer psychological tests. Psychological tests, objective measures of various types of functioning, provide information that cannot be obtained by merely observing or interviewing a person. The tests generate hypotheses that will either be supported or disconfirmed based on clinical interviews and collateral documentation. Because other mental health experts do not have training in test administration and interpretation, it is the inclusion of psychological tests that differentiate the reports done by a psychologist from those done by other mental health professionals. Moreover, due to their training and research skills, psychologists have special expertise in collecting and interpreting mental health evidence. Their reports are based on scientific evidence and reasoning not just clinical information.