Capacity to make financial decisions among people with mild intellectual disabilities.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although there has been growing recognition of the importance of enabling people with intellectual disabilities (ID) to be more directly involved in managing their own financial affairs, so far, little is known about this aspect of their decision- making. METHOD: Using vignettes and semi-structured interviews, the financial decision-making abilities of men and women with mild ID (n=30; mean FSIQ =61.80; SD=10.59) were compared with those of their counterparts in the 'general population' (n=16; mean FSIQ=101.56; SD=7.62) and 'very able' individuals (n=14; mean FSIQ=123.93; SD=7.60). RESULTS: Whilst the financial decision-making abilities of participants with ID were generally weaker than those of other participants, the differences were not discrete, and many individuals were judged to be able to make at least some personal financial decisions. For all three groups, understanding information relevant to the decision, and reasoning with it, were the hardest parts of the process. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support a functional approach to the assessment of financial decision-making for both legal and clinical purposes, but raise concerns about mental incapacity legislation and assessment.

Author information

Author/s: Suto, W M I (WM); Clare, I C H (IC); Holland, A J (AJ); Watson, P C (PC);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry (Section of Developmental Psychiatry), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR (J Intellect Disabil Res), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Mar; vol 49 (issue Pt 3) : pp 199-209

Dates: Created 2005/02/16; Completed 2005/06/09; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 15713195, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.