The increasing number of demented elderly in our societies, the ongoing debate on patient's rights and autonomy, and the growing body of knowledge on the dementias led the European Dementia Consensus network to regard competence assessment in dementia as an important topic of debate. To date, no other comprehensive publication on this topic is known to exist. EDCON performed a trans-european survey and has agreed on a consensus, which takes into account the variability of clinical symptoms of dementia as well as the special functions required for different purposes. This book contains a summarised consensus as well as chapters on the state if medical and psychological knowledge and how it is related to the areas of competence and chapters which deal with ethical and legal perspectives. The areas of competence, e.g. in the field of driving capacity will be discussed in own chapters. Furthermore, the book contains short contributions on the situation in individual European countries.

The increasing number of demented elderly in our societies, the ongoing debate on patient's rights and autonomy, and the growing body of knowledge on the dementias led the European Dementia Consensus network to regard competence assessment in dementia as an important topic of debate. To date, no other comprehensive publication on this topic is known to exist. EDCON performed a trans-european survey and has agreed on a consensus, which takes into account the variability of clinical symptoms of dementia as well as the special functions required for different purposes. This book contains a summarised consensus as well as chapters on the state if medical and psychological knowledge and how it is related to the areas of competence and chapters which deal with ethical and legal perspectives. The areas of competence, e.g. in the field of driving capacity will be discussed in own chapters. Furthermore, the book contains short contributions on the situation in individual European countries.