Supported Decision-Making Service

Supported Decision-Making Service for Persons with Disabilities | Service Model

The Human Rights Center for People with Disabilitis

3. Reciprocal learning from colleagues in Israel:

Bizchut is active in a coalition of

20 organizations that recognize the need to promote supported decision-making and

pursue the realization of Article12 in Israel. In this context, the work of the Ministry

of Justice Legal Aid Department is noteworthy as it has made inroads into obtaining

court recognition for supported decision-making as an alternative to guardianship.

4. Legal advocacy:

Throughout the years, Bizchut provided assistance to dozens of

persons wishing to free themselves from guardianship and use alternatives. Among

others, Bizchut provided legal representation in the first case in Israel in which

the court recognized supported decision-making as an alternative to guardianship

(the precedent of Dana Carmon in Guardianship file 50389-02-13 (Haifa) Attorney

General v. A.). The legal and community assistance provided by Bizchut in these

cases contributed to the formulation of the model.

D. The decision-making process

The decision-making process is usually described as consisting of the following stages: identifying

the decision-making juncture; gathering information and data regarding the situation; identifying

the options available; evaluating the meaning, advantages and disadvantages of the options;

considering them, choosing and making a decision; and immediately thereafter implementing the

decision and assessing it.

Studies from the last three decades point at the gap between normative models and descriptive

models of decision-making: normative models outline the ideal decision-making process which

would lead to the realization of the person's goals; the normative model is usually rational,

consisting of statistical calculations, feasibility evaluations and the chronology of the decision-

making stages. Descriptive models on the other hand, look at the actual decision-making process:

they describe the person's blind spots in the process, the impact of the decision-making conditions

on the quality of the process (risk, uncertainty, as well as information overload and choice

overload), the impact of the decision-maker's emotions, the role of intuition, etc. At the same

time, the importance of support and assistance is increasingly recognized as a means to facilitate

and strengthen decision-making among diverse groups: employees in large companies, patients

in health systems, military officers and beneficiaries of welfare services. Recognition of the fact

that people form part of a wide net of connections and dependencies and that they make decisions

with the support and assistance of their confidants is also on the rise. Meanwhile, multiple tools

have been developed to strengthen abilities and skills in the areas of decision-making, choice and

self-determination among persons with disabilities. The work model presented below relies in

part on the assumption that the decision-making process is neither rational nor chronological and

attempts to develop support and accommodations for some of the elements of this process.

Pilot participant:

When I saw that I was like the supporter, that I was her equal, that I’m also a human being,

I saw the way she treated me, so nicely, without being judgmental, she didn’t judge me

and she never made fun of me… Suddenly I saw that she too had problems, that she also

had money concerns.