Rights, support and protection are essential for all of us in order that we can live our lives in confidence and security regardless of our mental or physical condition. For people with dementia, support and protection becomes an increasingly important issue and as professionals we are in positions of great responsibility in ensuring that their rights are preserved.

This section:

• explores how the primary Scottish legislative frameworks support and protect people with dementia, their families and carers
• explores the Acts that are concerned with adults with mental disorder and their links and relationships
• incorporates a focus on rights, applying Alzheimer Scotland's Charter of Rights for People with Dementia in Scotland and carer's rights
• examines the role of the social worker in supporting people with dementia to be included, to exercise their rights and to be supported and protected
• includes lessons from recent relevant Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) publications, e.g. the Mrs V report

This section recognises the legal and rights based frameworks in which social workers and other professionals operate. We assume that social work professionals in adult settings will have had training on the suite of legislation which supports and protects people with dementia and others. This section primarily looks across the legislation at the interaction between different acts and the rights people have. There is a central focus on the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) and the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 (the 2007 Act); however reference is included to the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (the 2003 Act) where necessary. The role of the social worker is examined including how it relates to the work of the mental health officer (MHO).

There is a significant amount of information presented in this section and a variety of different opportunities to test your knowledge both in the case studies and general questions presented in the text and in the filmed examples in the 'Developing your practice' section. They can be used for group discussion or individual study.