Peer networks can help you understand your choices and make good decisions for yourself.
This is important because sometimes a person living with disability may have someone else making the decisions for them, maybe a family member or a professional person. The problem with that is that sometimes it can mean the person doesn’t always have a choice about what they want.
Here is how peer networks can talk about this, including something called supported decision-making.
Using your peer network meeting to talk about supported decision-making
Sometimes abbreviated to SDM, supported decision-making is a way of supporting a person to make decisions without that person losing ownership of their decisions.
A peer network can have a good conversation about decision-making, and there is much people can share. Here is a sample list of questions that could be used to run a conversation about decision-making.
- Why is it important to each of us that we make our own decisions?
- Some people living with disability may need help to make decisions. Do we think this means they have to give up being a decision maker and making their own choices?
- (For family members) what are the challenges in being the decision maker/Guardian for your adult son or daughter? Is it possible to make decisions for your adult son or daughter without including your own emotions and views?
- People often turn to friends and other trusted people to help them when they are thinking about a decision. Could this happen if someone has a Guardian?
Useful links and resources
The Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) has a good summary of Supported Decision Making, and links it to the NDIS and to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Centre for Public Representation in America is a national legal advocacy centre for people with disabilities and it has a website dedicated to supported decision making. The website has lots of good information and stories. You can find it here
The information on this page is also available as a downloadable Quick Guide, by clicking below. There are.pdf and word versions.