# People who lack decision-making capacity People who cannot understand information given to them and so to make decisions about themselves can find themselves caught up in the complexity of the immigration detention system. This lack of decision-making ability can apply to their medical and legal situation but also wider factors such as being able to understand day to day processes within detention centres including the practical steps needed to make appointments or understand how to connect with visitors. It can be hard to identify people who lack decision-making capacity and so there is limited data on how often this issue arises in detention. AVID members have visited people where there have been concerns about the person’s decision-making capacity and who required a mental capacity assessment. This included visiting people with learning disabilities, mental illness and other capacity issues caused by stroke and dementia. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://avid-detention.gitbook.io/avid-handbook/safeguards/harms-of-detention-what-safeguarding-concerns-do-visitors-come-across-in-detention/people-who-lack-decision-making-capacity.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.