National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants will have greater support to make their own decisions about their NDIS journey, with the release of the new Supported Decision Making Policy. This Policy, a result of one of the Agency’s co-design projects, will support and empower participants to take control over this part of their lives.
The Supported Decision Making Policy takes a rights-based approach to assist participants to make decisions in the NDIS, while building the skills and knowledge of decision supporters, NDIA staff and partners.
Children with disability have a human right to participate in decisions about their lives. Parents, carers, educators, families and practitioners have a clear role to play in providing the support children need to live lives that reflect their will and preference. This article reflects on the role supported decision-making mechanisms can play in the lives of children with disability.
Sammy, who has intellectual disability, talks about the relationship she has with her partner Ben. She talks about how they make decisions together and the role of her parents in supporting her.
Supported decision-making needs to be implemented across all sectors to ensure people with cognitive disability are empowered to make their own choices, says a new report commissioned by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
As a disability rights lawyer who represents people with disabilities and their families every day, I know that there is often a lot of confusion and fear around guardianship laws; especially about why they exist. This article is designed to fill you in on how these laws came to be and what role they have in a modern Australia that acknowledges the human rights of people with disability.
The decision could be about a financial, health, legal, lifestyle, work related or other matter and the support is important because it gives people with disability choice and control over their lives.
If you’re 18 or older, you have the right to make decisions about your business with the NDIS. If you’re not able to make decisions, even with support, you will need representative decision-making. The person undertaking this role is called a nominee and they do this voluntarily. The guidelines provide consistency and transparency about how nominee decisions are made and explain the nominee roles and responsibilities. They also provide information about agency-initiated appointments
I have had the opportunity to access a wide variety of services during my life. The quality that differentiates the best from the rest is the provider’s ability to empower me to make my own choices and not assume that they should take on that responsibility.
Does friendship between support workers and people with disability violate professional boundaries, endanger the working relationship, and unwittingly contribute to social isolation? Or is it a positive, natural by-product of compatible people spending a lot of time together?
Being able to participate in making decisions is a basic human right. The foundation of current approaches to providing support for decision making are that everyone has the right to participate in decision making.
People with cognitive disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities or acquired brain injury, are likely to need support to make some decisions about their lives. This course was designed for supporters of people with intellectual disabilities and people with acquired brain injury. Supporters include: frontline managers, disability support workers, team leaders, clinicians, friends, spouses, parents and other family members. It can also be used by case coordinators, case managers, local area coordinators and ability linkers.
This guide has been created to help you put in place some safeguards to ensure the person with disability you care for is properly provided for, if something were to happen to you. It outlines actions carers can take now to ensure safeguards are in place, should the time come when they are no longer able to care for the person with disability.
Advocates stand alongside the person with disability to make sure that their voices are heard in all matters that affect them. However, skilling up people with disabilities to utilise choice and control, takes time and is not currently recognised under current advocacy funding models. Circles of Support are a process where intentional networks of people are built around a person with disability to assist them in the creation of a good life in community and support their decision making through developing trusted relationships. Teresa Micallef is responsible for Building Community Networks at Belonging Matters. In this session, she shares her experience of the Circles of Support initiative including the positive outcomes for all involved in promoting decision making support, as well as the limitations and challenges she encounters.
For many Victorians with disability, the right to choose where they live and who they live with is so constrained that they are left feeling unsafe and fearful in their own homes, according to a report tabled in the State’s Parliament earlier this month.
The Royal Commission held a public hearing in Melbourne from Monday 2 December to Friday 6 December 2019. It inquired into homes and living for people with disability in Victoria and particularly the experiences of people who have lived or are currently living in group homes. This report finds that the closure of large institutions housing people with disability, with the resulting development of group homes has not eliminated institutional forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability, particularly those with serious intellectual disabilities.