67% of adults have not heard of the new Assisted-decision Making Law which came into effect last Friday.
The new legislation is designed to prevent and reduce adult abuse.
The Assisted-decision making legislation will advocate people's rights, particularly among vulnerable adults.
Safeguarding Ireland is calling for a major public campaign to help people understand and apply the new law.
Chairperson from Safeguarding Ireland Patricia Rickard Clarke explains how the new law works:
"Assisted Decision Making is about assisting a person to make decisions when they're in a position where their capacity may be in question or they lack capacity. Up to now, we've been working on 1871 legislation, which actually took a person as a ward of court, and the court made decisions on their behalf, or next-of-kin felt they had the authority to make decisions on behalf of another person, which is not correct".
