A–D
Advance healthcare directive (AHD) — a statement of treatment wishes made while you have capacity, to apply if you later cannot decide; may appoint a designated healthcare representative. Full guide.
Attorney — the person appointed under an enduring power of attorney to act for the donor. Duties and supervision.
Capacity — under the Act, the ability to understand, retain, use and weigh information relevant to a particular decision, and to communicate the decision. Decision-specific and time-specific. The functional test.
Co-decision-maker — a trusted person appointed by agreement to make specified decisions jointly with the appointer; the agreement is registered with the Decision Support Service. Full guide.
Decision-making assistant — the lightest arrangement: appointed by agreement to help access information and communicate, while the person decides. Full guide.
Decision-making representative (DMR) — a person appointed by the Circuit Court to make specified decisions on behalf of someone who cannot make them even with support. Full guide.
Decision Support Service (DSS) — the state body operating the Act's registers, panels, supervision and complaints. Full guide.
Designated healthcare representative — the person named in an advance healthcare directive to interpret and advocate for its terms.
E–P
Enduring power of attorney (EPA) — a document made while you have capacity appointing an attorney whose authority takes effect if capacity is later lost. Under the 2015 Act; older EPAs under the 1996 Act.
Functional test — the Act's approach to capacity: assessed decision by decision, at the time the decision is needed. Full guide.
General visitor / special visitor — persons the DSS or court can send to meet a relevant person and report — special visitors bring medical or other expertise.
Guiding principles — the rules every intervener must follow: presume capacity, support decision-making first, least restriction, respect will and preferences. Full guide.
Intervener — anyone taking an action under the Act in respect of a relevant person — assistants, co-decision-makers, DMRs, attorneys, the court itself.
Panel — the DSS maintains a panel of trained persons from which the court can appoint a DMR where no suitable family member or friend is available.
R–W
Relevant person — the Act's term for the person whose capacity is in question — deliberately neutral, and a reminder of whose process it is.
Review (wardship) — the process by which every existing adult ward of court was reviewed and discharged into the new framework after the Act commenced. Full guide.
Ward of court — the old system's status, abolished for adults by the 2015 Act.
Will and preferences — what the person themselves wants and values — the touchstone the Act puts in place of "best interests". Full guide.