MCYS resources
- Consent script form [February 2018]This resource was created by the then Ministry of Children and Youth Services to support Policy Directive CW 005-17: Collection and Reporting of Identity-Based Data. It is a consent script for agency staff to use with children and youth
Assessing capacity to consent
Children's Aid Societies will collect identity-based data directly from children and youth – or their parent if the child or youth does not have capacity to consent.
There is no single definition of capacity or specific age of consent. Child welfare workers will use their professional judgment to determine whether a child or youth is capable of providing consent given their age, maturity, psychological and developmental state.
In determining capacity to consent, workers should consider the following:
- Does the person have the ability to understand the information required to make a decision?
- Does the person understand what it means to give, withhold or withdraw consent?
Additional resources
- Legal Rights Wiki: Health & Mental HealthThis resource from Justice for Children and Youth provides information on legal rights with regards to health care treatment, with special attention to the issues of consent and capacity.
- Understanding common legal issues in child and youth mental healthThis webpage from the Canadian Mental Health Association provides information on consent as relates to children and youth as well as a definition of informed consent
- Ethical guidance: Informed consent [2013]Resource from the Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC). ERIC is a joint project between UNICEF’s Office of Research, Innocenti, the Childwatch International Research Network, the Centre for Children and Young People at Southern Cross University, Australia, and the Children’s Issues Centre at the University of Otago, New Zealand.
- Policy on preventing discrimination based on mental health disabilities and addictions: Consent and capacity [2014]This resource from the Ontario Human Rights Commission discusses human rights principles, consent, and decision-making capacity specifically as relates to people with mental health disabilities and addictions
