Health Care Consent Act (Ontario)
The Health Care Consent Act (HCCA) is an Ontario law concerned with the capacity to consent to treatment and admission to care facilities. (i.e., informed consent). on a date to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, the act will apply to confining in a care facility. The HCCA states that a person has the right to consent to or refuse treatment if they have mental capacity. In order to have capacity, a person must have the "ability" to understand and appreciate the consequences of the treatment decision. The law says that “a person is capable with respect to a treatment, admission to a care facility or a personal assistance service if the person is able to understand the information that is relevant to making a decision about the treatment, admission or personal assistance service, as the case may be, and able to appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of a decision or lack of decision”. Relationship to other Acts The HCCA exists in addition to the Ontario Mental Health Act (MHA) because, while the MHA governs detention in a psychiatric facility, the HCCA governs whether or not a person can be treated while in hospital (for example, with anti-psychotic