Kane, Samantha, Ricky and Frank talk about how it feels to make their own decisions and choices. They share the importance of supported decision making in their lives and the impact it can have.

Transcript

Kane: I can make decisions for my life.

Ricky: I know what is best for me. Give me time to tell you and show you.

Frank: You are not setting me up to fail if you support me well.

Sammy: I can take risks to grow as a person.

Ricky: It is important to make my own decisions because I feel like you get that freedom. You feel more independence. To kind of achieve not only just happiness but that you can pick and choose whatever you want to do and when you want to do it.

Frank: Decisions are important for everyone I think. And decisions should sometimes be discussed and worked out and thought about very carefully about you know how you make those decisions and whether you are capable of deciding those decisions on your own as well.

Sammy: It is good to make your own decision. To speak up. And have your say. I feel good to make my own decision. I feel I can speak up now.

Kane: I think making my own decision is 1. I feel good in myself when I do it. Number 2 is I get the satisfaction of doing that. And if I stuff up I learn from those mistakes and yeah.

Ricky: When people make decisions for me I feel like they do not think you know what you are doing. You do not know how to decide on you know what makes you happy. You feel like you are being controlled.

Frank: When people try to make decisions for me it sometimes confuses me and makes me very mixed up. The decisions that people try to make for me are sometimes the wrong decisions for me and they are not made the right way. Decisions should be made by the person you are. By who you are. By the person you are.

Kane: For my wellbeing and the activities I do I pretty much stay motivated and I keep healthy and that is like that is my goal is to do what I am doing now and just keeping myself real active, surfing and dancing and yeah just yeah.

Sammy: Sometimes it is hard to talk about it when I am upset. I have 10 friends at REDinc and I support them. They talk to me and they know when I am upset because I stay quiet. They spend time with me. They do not be mean to me.

Ricky: Being as a well-supported person makes me feel good that you can just go out into the community and do what you do best. If you get the right encouragement then you will be able to stand up for things that you are passionate about.

Sammy: If I make a decision I talk to my mum and my dad about what I want to do. My family and Ben help me to work in a team and give me good advice. I feel really well supported.

Kane: I would search what I am doing what it is and I would get a second opinion from a friend of mine or from my mum or from anyone else. If it looks good I will jump in it slowly and not like yeah I am going to dive into it straight away.

Frank: To make a decision I normally either seek somebody whoever is closest to me or my support worker or my family. And the more you talk about it with people the easier it actually gets. Thinking about it. There is discussing it. There is emotional effects from it. It should not be over a short time because a short time you do not have enough time to sort of think about it properly and you do not have enough time to sort of to think how it is all going to come together the right way.

Frank: Your heart, your mind and your soul. The most important thing is listening to those because they are the things that are going to guide you throughout your life and your career.

Ricky: Back you know a while ago people with disabilities sometimes they had no choice. They had to do whatever was said to them. It is time for you know people with disabilities to make up for lost time you could say.

Kane: I just say look if your mouth is closed you are not going to get heard. If you open it and say something it is going to get heard. And if it is closed they are just going to keep making your decision. So I just say open that mouth. Say something. Yeah, yeah.