I couldn’t be more excited to see something finally in print, truth be told.

In or around late 2016 / early 2017, I had this idea for an Acronym that would help capacity assessors identify the essential elements of doing a proper assessment.

That acronym is CARE(FUL) – I have been teaching the constituting elements using the acronym ever since.

I’ve been delivering the talk from basic speaking notes several times a year all this time.

Now, finally – a proper academic scholarly paper based on the acronym, with tons of case law in support of the original thesis, is out in the world for all (subscribers) to read.

It’s a relief to have this wealth of jurisprudence and wisdom in one consolidated place. This will be an excellent teaching tool but also incredibly useful for our own reference. I bet I’ll be going to it on the daily for cases to use in litigation before the Consent and Capacity Board.

I am grateful to the associates at our firm at the relevant time, Tanner Blomme and Maya Kotob and to our summer intern Humna Wasim for their assistance in research and drafting, as well as to Dr. Ruby Dhand, who, as always, did so much of the heavy-lifting here, particularly with secondary sources and citations – her incredible expertise.

The paper is available in Volume 43 Number 2 of Health Law in Canada, November 2022, which is a Newsletter published through LexisNexis available by subscription only here:

Health Law in Canada LexisNexis Newsletter

But I can show you what it looks like and our very helpful Editor’s Introduction as well as the Abstract.

Maybe it’s just the six year wait, but I think it looks beautiful!