Supported decision making gives people with disability freedom and independence.

Listen to Ricky, Kane, Sammy and Frank talk about why it is important for them to make their own decisions.

Read more about supported decision making in the research report from La Trobe University and the Disability Royal Commission: Diversity, equity and best practice: a framework for supported decision making.

Transcript

Title: Talking about why supported decision-making is important

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.

Kane: I think making my own decision is one, I feel good in myself when I do it. Number two 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 in the right way. Decisions should be made by the person you are. By who you are. By the person you are.

Sammy: If I make a decision, I talk to my mum and 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.

Frank: To make a decision I normally either seek somebody 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.

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.

Text: Read more about supported decision-making. Research report – from the Disability Royal Commission. Diversity, dignity, equity and best practice: a framework for supported decision-making.