Legal issues in the care of mentally impaired elderly persons: competence, surrogate management, and protection of rights. Working Group on Legal Issues, Committee on Guidelines for Comprehensive Services to Elderly Persons with Psychiatric Disorders.

This article identifies a number of areas of concern in the care of mentally impaired elderly persons, focusing on the need for improved criteria, definitions and procedures in the following areas: the determination of competence or incompetence; the initiation, implementation and monitoring of measures for surrogate management (power of attorney, trusteeship, guardianship); standards of care; and advocacy in defence of the rights of elderly persons. The large and growing number of elderly persons in need of care--the very old, the frail, those without relatives and, in particular, the mentally impaired--has many legal implications. The critical issue is how effectively the law can protect and maintain the rights of people who are unable to do so themselves.