EDITORIAL The Mental Capacity Act: some implications for

black and minority ethnic elders The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) [1] was partially implemented in April 2007 and fully implemented from 1 October 2007 in England and Wales. Lack of decision-making capacity (DMC) is associated with cognitive impairment and dementia [2]. The proportion of adults aged 65 years and above in black and minority ethnic (BME) groups is rapidly increasing [3]. The prevalence of dementia in BME groups is either similar to or higher than the indigenous white British group [4–7]. There were 531,909 BME elders in the 2001 population census [8]. One study estimated that 11,860 of these BME elders had dementia in 2004 in the United Kingdom [9]. Therefore, the increasing number of BME elders will be assessed under the MCA. The Code of Practice [10] accompanying the MCA recognises tha