Thats a bit of a minefield: supported decision making in intellectually disabled peoples intimate lives

Harding, Rosie; Taşcıoğlu, Ezgi

doi:10.4337/9781788111157.00027

Cited by 2 publications

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“…For life choices, in which we include decisions about education, employment, housing and relationships, appropriate levels of support were not always available. We do not explore the issue of supporting relationships in this paper, as we have done so elsewhere [12,13].…”

Section: Support To Make Life Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Harding

Taşcıoğlu

2018

Societies

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The right to equal recognition before the law, protected by Article 12 of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), mandates the use of supported decision-making practices to enable disabled people, particularly those with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, to enjoy their legal capacity. Finding ways to translate this theoretical mandate into practice poses a number of particularly challenging socio-legal issues, which this research seeks to address. The English Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) sets out a right to support with decision-making (s.1(3)), underpinned by a presumption of capacity (s.1 (2)). Qualitative interviews with intellectually disabled people, their supporters, and care and support professionals were undertaken to explore how disabled people make decisions in their everyday lives, the kinds of support they need, and the strategies for supported decision-making used in practice. Analysis of these interviews suggests that a range of supported decision-making techniques have been developed in practice and are effective in supporting everyday preferences and some life choices. Paradoxically, it appears that as decisions become more complex, the support available to disabled people reduces. Specifically, much less support is available for more difficult decisions around finances, healthcare and legal matters. We argue that the reasons for this are due to a web of regulatory, social and policy issues. We conclude that implementing the right to enjoy legal capacity through supported decision-making will require a combination of regulatory reform, social change and policy amendment.

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Section: Support To Make Life Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Harding

Taşcıoğlu

2018

Societies

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“…For example, some have argued that the empowerment ethos has been lost in favour of protectionism (Dunn et al, 2008;Hollomotz, 2011;Clough, 2018). It has also been argued that professionals need to genuinely engage with ways to empower disabled people to make decisions in their own lives (Harding and Tas cıo glu, 2020) and social work, in particular, is well placed to do this given that their legitimacy stems from their relationship of support with service users (Lindsey, 2021).…”

Section: Social Work Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%

Social work expertise, best interests and the court of protection

Lindsey

O'Reardon

2021

JAP

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of social work professional evidence in mental capacity law, specifically Court of Protection proceedings. The authors analyse how social workers perform as evidence givers in this domain and how social work as a profession is perceived alongside other professions within the context of adult social care decision-making in mental capacity law. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on textual evidence from judgments and existing empirical data published elsewhere. The authors consider the contribution of social work professional expertise to best interests decision-making in formal legal proceedings which, in turn, reflects on how social work expertise is relevant in everyday practice. Findings The findings of this paper include that social workers are well placed to be experts on best interests decision-making in mental capacity law. However, the authors show that the Court of Protection has not always endorsed this form of social work expertise in its judgments, meaning that social workers can struggle to articulate an expert knowledge base. Originality/value Overall, the authors conclude that social work evidence is incredibly valuable as expertise about the person’s best interests, particularly in the domain of welfare cases and care planning.

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Thats a bit of a minefield: supported decision making in intellectually disabled peoples intimate lives

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Social work expertise, best interests and the court of protection

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