Practice

A one page information sheet outlining some key ideas about decision-making support. It talks about how The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are all put in place to ensure all people have the rights to make decisions about their lives.

Often, people with cognitive disability want support to make decisions. Indeed all people often want or need support to make decisions. This booklet sets out guidelines for legal professionals to assist people with cognitive disability make decisions.

This booklet sets out guidelines for families and supporters – including siblings, friends and others – to help people with cognitive disability make decisions.

Nick likes to make decisions. To make decisions about his life puts him in control. They also provide him with opportunities to learn. Nick is an energetic young man, who has strong family connections and friendships, an adored long time girlfriend, and a desire for a life of his own, separate from his parents. He also has cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability and epilepsy. The impact of these conditions are that he is unable to speak, and needs a walking frame or wheelchair to get around. He is impulsive and his sense of danger is variable and dependent on his mood and focus at the time. This paper highlights the question “What do we need to do to support Nick’s choices?”

This is a factsheet about the role of supporters of people with disability. Supporters are people who listen and promote the person’s will and preferences (i.e., what a person wants, doesn’t want, likes, dislikes, prefers to do).

Providing decision-making support is going to be challenging at times and is not always straightforward. Here are some things you will need to keep in mind.

This booklet sets out guidelines for disability workers to help people with cognitive disability make decisions.

This is a factsheet designed for support workers about decision-making support. Decision-making support is a way of supporting people with cognitive disability (intellectual disability or acquired brain injury) to have their opinions heard and understood, and to help them make major decisions.

As a disability support worker, it is important to not only provide support for decision-making, but also increase the opportunities a person has for decision making. Try to help the person develop skills and independence in decision-making. Skills in decision-making will improve if the person has opportunities to practice. This factsheet is designed for support workers supporting people with decision making.

Presentation slides on the importance of supported decision making in the context of the NDIS.

This Supporting Decision Making quick reference guide is for staff who work with people with a disability who are making decisions. Legislation and policy strongly supports people to exercise choice and control over their disability supports. For this to be effective, people need to be supported, where needed, to make decisions about the things that are important to them.

The freedom to make decisions which affect our lives is a fundamental right that each of us should enjoy.

The decisions and choices that we make are a reflection of who we are as individuals. They allow us to express our views, our personalities, our desires and goals as well as to reflect what we think is important in life. Through these choices and decisions we can pursue the lifestyles that we want.

Outcomes of decisions – good and bad – help us learn and grow as individuals. Through involvement in decision making we can gain experience, confidence and knowledge which enrich our lives.

A presentation by Michelle Browning for Decision Makers about Supported Decision Making.

A presentation by Michelle Browning on how Decision Supporters can offer the best possible support to Decision Makers.

This online learning resource is about support for decision making. It will present the first evidence-based framework to guide you through the process of supporting people with cognitive disabilities to make decisions. Using this framework will help you to enable the people you support to exercise choice and control in their own lives.

This online learning resource is about support for decision making. It will present the first evidence-based framework to guide you through the process of supporting people with cognitive disabilities to make decisions. Using this framework will help you to enable the people you support to exercise choice and control in their own lives.

A fillable checklist to go alone with The La Trobe Support for Decision Making Practice Framework.

A fillable document to record a decision being made with support.

The La Trobe Support for Decision Making actual Framework figure.

The activity booklet to go along with La Trobe’s Support for Decision Making Practice Framework.

Peer networks can help people understand their choices and make decisions for themselves. Sometimes it can be useful to have a conversation about what it means to make a decision. This quick guide looks at how peer networks can talk about this, including supported decision-making.

This is the fifth of five resources in the It’s My Choice toolkit. From a human rights perspective choice plays a central role as one of the primary underlying principles. In the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) choice and autonomy are the basis of the first principle and linked to the aspiration of independence: ‘Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons…’(Article 3a)

This is the fourth of five resources in the It’s My Choice toolkit. This Film and Discussion Guide will help you talk about three films about making your own choices.

This is the third of five resources in the It’s My Choice toolkit. This guide is designed for Disability Service Providers (DSPs) and support workers to support people with disabilities to make their own choices and to develop service and choice planning frameworks that deliver better lives.

This is the second of five resources in the It’s My Choice toolkit: A Guide for People with a Disability, their Family Carers, Friends and Advocates.

This is the first of five resources in the It’s My Choice! toolkit. While choice is often spoken about, as a practical task it is far from easy to implement. Developed in partnership by Inclusion Melbourne and RMIT University, this toolkit consists of five guides that support people with a disability, families and support providers to understand and explore the principles of choice. It also provides examples, worksheets and other practical tools to support people to develop their choice making abilities.

The decision support card describes the basic support needs of an individual. They are able to carry this card around with them, should the person find themselves in a situation where they are unable to communicate these needs, or others not understanding their needs ,the information is readily available. It acts as a safeguard similar to an ‘in case of emergency’ on your phone.

What is Supported Decision Making? This document contains questions that may help decision supporters to support decision makers. It is important to be aware of the language used and to ensure each stage is understood by both the decision makers and the decision supporters.

This workbook from Belonging Matters contains guidance, tips and exercises to explore and establish a circle of support alongside a person. A relationship circle can play an important role in supporting a person’s decision making.

This fact sheet outlines the differences between Microboards and Circles of Support.

A support network is a group of people in the decision makers life for whom they can get decision support. Mapping this support network gives you a visual tool that can be helpful for decision maker’s and their supporters alike.

This toolkit is a simple guide for decision making. Everyone has the right to make decisions about their own life. You can use support to make decisions. These decisions should be respected

This reader has been made to help people and their supporters to talk together about the different ways we can be with each other. It aims to help start a conversation about the different ways people with developmental disability and complex communication needs want others to be around them.

Decision Making Profiles and Decision Making Agreements look at what support someone needs to make decisions in their life, and ensures that they have as much power and control as possible in how these decisions are made. This document explains more about this and has a example template for how you could record this information for someone.

The Council for Intellectual Disability provide training and resources to help build the decision making confidence of people with intellectual disability and their supporters.

These tips are meant as a guide, everyone is unique. Communication is key to not only attaining information but also important for us to feel involved, comfortable and heard. Taking the time to ensure communication is accessible means we are included. It means we can understand what is happening.

A Microboard is a group of family members and friends that you like and trust. You can ask your Microboard to help you work out what you would like to do in your life.

This booklet is for supporters or a support network to collect information about how a person can get the support they need to make decisions.

This supported decision-making guide is written for people who provide assistance to others when making decisions in everyday life. It aims to provide a framework for understanding the process of supported decision making, a summary of it’s aims and principles and greater clarity regarding the role and responsibilities of decision supporters.

This poster is a summary of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child.

This planning guide is intended to provide organisations with information to assist them to be ready to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and their families in planning for social care. Aboriginal people with disability and their family members may also find this guide helpful to use in conjunction with individual planning resources, some of which are mentioned in section four of this guide.

The NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) is undertaking an action research project to develop (1) a practice model of delivering supported decision-making with a safeguarding focus for people with disability and (2) organisational capacity to provide best practice individual safeguarding support to a diverse range of people with disability. The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) has been commissioned to provide research advice, training and action research practice support to NCOSS.

This project research plan was undertaken in 2017. Changes in disability policy, such as the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), entail a move away from substitute decision making for the person with disability to supported decision making by the person themselves, with appropriate safeguard supports to reduce the risk of harm. The project objective is for NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS) to develop a practice guide to inform organisational capacity to support workers who support people with disability to make decisions about personal safety ,wellbeing and preventing harm.

Tree of Life in easy read with illustrations.

This book is part of the Skilled to Thrive group of resources using the Tree of Life. It is recommended for use in learning groups.

The Tree of Life tool presented here is adapted from the work of Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo (REPSSI) and David Denborough at the Dulwich Centre Foundation. Their work is based on narrative therapy and collective narrative therapy for people who have experienced traumatic events. This practice guide is for disability advocates, social services staff and group facilitators who assist people through tough times and prepares workers to help people make decisions in difficult periods of their lives.

This toolkit documents the guiding foundations to consider when developing and scaffolding your own peer to peer responses.

This guide takes readers through the various ways in which supported decision-making can occur in Victoria, taking account of all the legal possibilities, while also providing best-practice advice. Supported decision-making is different to other decision-making practices such as traditional guardianship, where a person with a disability is represented by another in their decision-making.

This introduction provides information about why supported decision-making is important, how to use this guide, and an overview of the 4 sections. This document is primarily a national resource, which uses some examples from NSW to evidence one approach, which providers in other states will need to confirm with their own state government or responsible body.