Aust Fam Physician
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As general practitioners developed a corporate mentality, they also saw the need for a body that would represent them. This led to various medical associations and groups of general practitioners. For a variety of reasons, these bodies failed to develop until the final emergence of the Royal College of General Practitioners....
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People fear losing their identity or no longer being themselves. It can be devastating to see someone who spent their life with you turn into someone who looks like your loved one but who no longer recognises you and may be frightened, suspicious, hostile or violent. ⋯ Dementia may not be obvious to the individual, the family or their family doctor and should not be simply attributed to 'Alzheimer's'. Dementias can be confused with delirium or depression and the different dementias have different prognoses and different interventions.
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Doctors must generally obtain a patient's consent for a medical procedure before it is undertaken. When a patient has impaired mental capacity, the doctor may be uncertain whether the patient is competent to consent and decide that consent must be obtained from someone else. recent legislation gives legal authority to people appointed by the patient, or by the state; or a relative or carer, to consent (or refuse) on behalf of the patient. ⋯ This paper explains the general legal requirements to obtain consent; a how a patient's competence is assessed; and the people who may legally consent (or refuse) on behalf of an incompetent patient. A case study illustrates how the legal principles are applied in practice.