National Alzheimers Awareness Month!
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11/11/2005 7:08:01 PM
November is
National Alzheimer's Awareness Month
in the United States. We should all try to help those who suffer from this debilitating disease!
An interesting study published in the
American Journal of Psychiatry 162:2094-2100
,November 2005 by Appelbaum et al tests a screening assessment createdby the authors to determine if Alzeimers patients are mentally capableof voting. A 2001 federal court decision offered the first clearcriteria (
"Doe voting capacity standard"
) for determining voting competence.
"Theinstrument used to assess the capacity to vote, the "CompetenceAssessment Tool for Voting (CAT-V)", is based on the structure andscoring criteria of other capacity assessment instruments. It assessesa person’s performance on all four standard decision-making abilities:understanding, appreciation,reasoning, and choice. Although onlyunderstanding and choice were required by the Doe court, we addedappreciation and reasoning questions for comparative purposes."
The study concluded:
"The capacityto vote, as embodied in the Doe voting capacity standard, can bemeasured simply and reliably. Structured assessment is particularlylikely to be useful for people with moderate Alzheimer’s disease, whoseperformance cannot be predicted from MMSE scores alone. This approachcan ensure retention of voting rights by capable persons and exclusionof clearly impaired persons from the voting booth."
Here is the question tool developed by the authors: Can you answer these Questions?
Comments
Dear Jon,
So grateful for your posting this and getting the message out. Let me know if I can return the favor.
Thanks again,
Deb
URL:
Came across you via GruntDoc. Amazing blog you hav
Posted by:
Deb
11/12/2005 12:10:35 PM
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