My Rights: Supported Decision Making

Region: International

Does it matter? Decision-making by People with Learning Disabilities.

An easy read report, by People First Scotland, about the research they did on decisions and decision-making by adults with learning disabilities. The research aimed to answer the question ‘Does it matter to people with learning disabilities whether they are supported to make their own decisions or have others make decisions for them in their lives?’.

Riding LIFE – Brad Goldman

Brad Goldman is a man with DRIVE. After living for most of the first 25 years of his life at Metheny Hospital and School in Peapack, NJ, he sought out the support of Neighbours Inc. to assist him in pursuing his vision of life as someone who had the power and authority to create life he wanted to live. Seventeen years later, Brad has lived in his own apartment, managed his own staff, and thrives as a painter, photographer, and business entrepreneur.

Beyond Guardianship: Supported Decision Making By Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

Guardianship deprives people with intellectual disabilities of their ability to make their own decisions, and of legal recognition of those decisions. A guardian is appointed by a court to make some or all decisions for the person, based on “substituted judgment,” taking into account what the person wants or would have wanted. If the guardian does not know what the person wants or would have wanted, the guardian can make a decision based on his or her view of the person’s “best interests.”

Ratification of the UN Convention on The Rights of Person with Disabilities would create both the opportunity and obligation to move from a legal system that measures and judges “mental capacity” – and that, upon a finding of”incapacity,” appoints a guardian to make substituted or best interest decisions for the person under guardianship – to a system that affirms the legal capacity of persons with intellectual disabilities and provides them with the supports necessary to make their own decisions and have those decisions legally recognized.

Claiming Full Citizenship 2015 International Conference

With the passage of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, self-determination, personalization and individualized funding initiatives have a new foundation upon which to build. In countries all over the world, these initiatives are transforming the lives of people with disabilities. Like the shift from institutions to community services, these initiatives are a momentous step forward in assisting people with disabilities and seniors achieve meaningful and rewarding lives as full citizens. In October of 2015, the UBC Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship is hosted “Claiming Full Citizenship: an international conference on Self Determination, Personalization and Individualized Funding”. This document is the syllabus from this event.

Equal Rights For All! Access To Rights And Justice For People With Intellectual Disabilities

Most people with intellectual disabilities in Europe cannot fully participate in the normal life of society. They experience social exclusion and discrimination and often cannot enjoy the rights and benefits of full citizenship. A recent study of Inclusion Europe also proves that they are often victims of poverty and have a very low rate of employment, even when compared to other groups of disabled people. Co-financed by the European Commission, the partners of the project “Justice, Rights and Inclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities” have examined and developed strategies that can support the better inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in society and promote their access to rights and justice.

Future Directions in Supported Decision-Making

This article explores the theoretical foundations of supported decision-making and the evolution of supported decision-making research. It explains the research that is emerging in leading jurisdictions, the United States and Australia, and its potential to transform disability services and laws related to decision-making. Finally, it identifies areas of concern in the direction of such research and provides recommendations for ensuring that supported decision-making remains protective of the rights, will and preferences of people with cognitive disability.

Key Elements of a System for Supported Decision Making: Inclusion International Position Paper

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities demands in its Article 12 equal recognition before the law for all persons with disabilities. This Position Paper explores which key elements are necessary to implement this principle in the legal systems of all countries that have ratified the Convention. Starting from the discussion of some basic notions regarding legal capacity, the Position Paper identifies eight elements that should be considered in the implementation of this article to make the UN Convention a tool that promotes the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities.

Supportive Decision-Making Study

Supportive Decision Making Study
House Joint Resolution 190

This report contains information about the background and context for the alternative to guardianship known as Supported Decision Making.

Self Determination And Person Centred Planning

Older people and people with disabilities can, in Michigan, be in charge of making the decisions affecting their lives. However, if they are dependent on a public system for the services and supports they need, in the past they were not given the power to make these choices. Self-determination with person-centered planning has been mandated in Michigan by MCL 330.1700(g). This may cause the most significant change in the delivery of services to individuals with disabilities in many years. This is a process designed to shift power in negotiating the mental health system from the professional to the individual receiving services.

Supported Decision Making: Protecting Rights, Ensuring Choices

This article introduces Supported Decision-Making, an alternative to guardianship where people make their own decisions, without a guardian, while receiving the help they need and want to do so.
Supported Decision-Making protects and enhances the “principal prerogative all people have to make their own decisions and direct their own lives to the maximum of their abilities” and can improve life outcomes like health, independence, safety, and employment.

Supported Decision-Making for Persons with Mental Illness: A Review

Persons with mental illness (PWMI) are often not afforded the same opportunity to make decisions on a par with others in society. Article 12 of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that persons with disabilities should have equal recognition before the law and the right to exercise their legal capacity. Exercising legal capacity can mean making decisions about employment, medical or psychosocial treatment, property, finances, family, and participation in community activities. The aim of this paper is to comprehensively review the evidence on supported decision making for PWMI, both in legislation and research globally, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Results reveal only a few countries have provisions for supported decision-making for PWMI, with a particular shortage of such provisions in legislation in LMICs There is also a general paucity of research evidence for supported decision-making, with the majority of research focusing on shared decision-making for treatment decisions. This review highlights the need for additional research in this area to better guide models, which can be utilised in domestic legislation, particularly in LMICs, to better implement the ideals of Article 12 of the CRPD.

From Provisions to Practice: Implementing The Convention

With supported decision-making, the presumption is always in favour of the person with a disability who will be affected by the decision. The individual is the decision maker; the support person(s) explain(s) the issues, when necessary, and interpret(s) the signs and preferences of the individual. Even when an individual with a disability requires totalsupport, the support person(s) should enable the individual to exercise his/her legal capacity to the greatest extent possible, according to the wishes of the individual. This distinguishes supported decision-making from substituted decision-making, such as advance directives and legal mentors/friends, where the guardian or tutor has court-authorized power to make decisions on behalf of the individual without necessarily having to demonstrate that those decisions are in the individual’s best interest or according to Development and human rights for all.

Inclusion International Position Paper on Legal Capacity

Inclusion International demands the right of every person with an intellectual disability to have
their right to make decisions recognized and to receive the support they require in making
those decisions. The right to legal capacity includes the capacity to have rights and the capacity to act on those rights, i.e. the capacity to make legal agreements with others.

Funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Go to www.dss.gov.au for more information.
These resources are in the process of being transferred to Inclusion Solutions. Click here to visit their website.

A resource of WA Individualised Services.