What is impaired decision-making capacity?

'Impaired decision-making capacity’ is a term that can cause confusion because a person’s decision-making capacity relates to specific situations and is not a general state of being.

Everybody has the right to make decisions that affect their life. It’s a basic human right and it’s how we live our lives independently. The law presumes every adult has the capacity to make their own decisions, which means you can’t assume someone has impaired capacity without sufficient evidence.