The Supported Decision Making Advisory Group met on 18 August for the fourth time.
The meeting was held online.
Focus of the meeting
The focus of the August meeting was:
- Access and Planning Pathways
- Navigators.
Access and Planning Pathways
The NDIA wants to work with members to make the new planning process work best for participants who need decision making supports.
Discussions included:
- Using the term decision supporters where relevant, noting that nominees have a very different, legislative role in the NDIA and other systems.
- Whilst it is acknowledged that often a decision supporter is a family member, it is not exclusive, and this should be clearly outlined.
- Using the terminology of decision supporter as recognised, will ensure that the scope is not limited to family members and will provide clarity to the role definition.
- Suggestions to use a process to check that the nominee or decision supporters are considering the will and preferences of the person they support.
- Exercising choice and control regarding decision making, potentially requires multiple decision supporters and may take time.
- Providing participants advance notice of topics to be discussed in upcoming meetings will enable as much preparation as possible.
- Broadening the scope of accessible communication would be ideal in providing different formats that are going to meet individual needs and provide information on the likely questions that are going to be asked. This will assist in prompting conversations beforehand and the overall preparation for participants.
Navigators
- The NDIA led a presentation on the introduction of early design thinking of the Navigator role and sought feedback to understand how the Navigator function can strengthen supported decision making.
- Discussions included:
- Whilst the role of the Navigator seems to be positive, there is a lot of apprehension and uncertainty in the community.
- There is a high importance of the Navigator role for people who are not NDIA participants.
- Recommendation for investment in training the workforce to ensure all stakeholders understand the importance of supported decision making.
- The importance of building and maintaining trusted relationships is critical, along with direct communication lines.
Supported Decision Making Advisory Group next meeting
The Supported Decision-Making Advisory Group’s next meeting is on 28 October 2025.