Gériatrie et Psychologie Neuropsychiatrie du Vieillissement
MENUL’évaluation de la capacité de consentement sexuel chez les personnes âgées souffrant de démence : quelle place et quels outils pour les psychologues ? Volume 20, issue 1, Mars 2022
- Key words: sexual consent, assessment, cognitive impairment, dementia, aging
- DOI : 10.1684/pnv.2021.0997
- Page(s) : 35-43
- Published in: 2022
Decision-making capacities of older people with cognitive disorders are among the most important societal and ethical issues in the field of aging. The question is particularly thorny when it comes to addressing the issue of sexual consent capacity among these people. Indeed, research shows that institutionalized elderly people (with or without dementia) maintains sexual interests and needs similar to those of elderly people living at home. Nevertheless, cognitively or physically vulnerable elderly people also constitute a group at risk of sexual assault and/or victimization, and especially with people with severe dementia. This article examines the place of the psychologist and the approach he can develop to assess the capacity of sexual consent in the elderly subject with cognitive vulnerability. Following the recommendations of the American Bar Association/American Psychological Association for the assessment of capacity in older adults with diminished capacity, we make some propositions to assess psychological and neuropsychological functions implicated in sexual consent.