Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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Functional approach is based on establishing (1) a person’s
functional abilities, behaviours or capacities (Grisso, 1986),
that is, what he or she understands, knows, believes or can do
which is directly relevant to the legal context at issue and (2) the
extent to which these functional abilities meet the demands of a
particular situation within a given legal context.
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
According to Myron et al. (2008) the functional approach has been
increasingly preferred when assessing capacity and is increasingly
recommended to professionals such as medical practitioners and
psychologists in their professional guidance. [61]
The implication is that before making any declaration of incapacity,
consideration needs to be given to whether it would be possible either
to improve the person’s relevant functional abilities (for example, by
ensuring that he/she is offered education or additional support) and/
or to simplify or otherwise amend the situation to improve the person’s
capacity (Murphy and Clare, 2003).
Brown (2004: 44) critiques the functional model and argues that it
tends not to explore suggestibility and the effect of gendered power
and stereotypical gender roles on the ability of women with learning
disabilities to make sound and safe decisions in their relationships and
sexual lives. She suggests that a model of capacity should both maximise
the woman’s involvement in decision-making and, when it comes to
serious abuses, help her to seek refuge, justice and redress (Brown,
2004).
3.6 Setting the standard for determining capacity to consent
to sexual relationships
Much research on decision-making capacity has concerned consent to
treatment (Grisso & Appelbaum, 1998; Arscott, Dagnan and Stenfert
Kroese, 1999; Wong, Clare, Holland, Watson and Gunn, 2000). Murphy
61 For example, Assessment of Mental Capacity, British Medical Association/
Law Society (2004); Assessment of Capacity in Adults: Interim Guidance for
Psychologists, The British Psychological Society (2006). See also Suto, Clare &
Holland (2002).