1. Supported Decision-Making for People Living with Dementia: An Examination of Four Australian Guardianship Laws.
- Author
-
Blake M, Stewart C, Castelli-Arnold P, and Sinclair C
- Subjects
- Decision Making, Humans, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Dementia, Mental Competency
- Abstract
Australia is obliged under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to provide decision-making support to people with cognitive impairment. While there has been considerable recent activity looking at how the law should respond to the challenges raised by the Convention, there has been little discussion in Australia of how these changes will impact upon the care of people with dementia (the largest class of person with cognitive impairment in Australia). This section examines current Australian legal approaches to decision-making for people with dementia in four jurisdictions (New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia) through an analysis of reported tribunal decisions in each of these jurisdictions. It notes the scope for informal supported decision-making and the basis for the invocation of guardianship orders, including the new Victorian supportive guardianship order, and compares the new standards raised by the Convention. The section considers legal reforms which could improve the implementation of supported decision-making for people living with dementia., Competing Interests: This work was undertaken with funding support from the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Centre for Cognitive and Related Functional Decline (Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre). The funding bodies had no role in determining the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, write-up, or decision to publish. The authors acknowledge the contribution of funding bodies (NHMRC) and funding partners (Dementia Australia, HammondCare, Helping Hand Aged Care, Brightwater Group). The contents of the above materials are solely the responsibility of the individual authors identified, and do not reflect the views of the funding bodies or the funding partners.
- Published
- 2021