
- Supported decision making (SDM) is a tool that allows people with disabilities to retain their own decision-making capacity by choosing supporters to help them make choices.
A person using SDM selects trusted advisors, such as friends, family members, or professionals, to serve as ‘supporters’. The supporters agree to help the person with a disability understand, consider, and communicate decisions, giving the person with a disability the tools to make her own, informed, decisions.
SDM means finding tools and supports to help a person with a disability understand, make, and communicate her own choices. Examples of these tools might be:➞ plain language materials or information in visual or audio form
➞ extra time to discuss choices
➞ creating lists of pros and cons
➞ role-playing activities to help the person understand choices
➞ bringing a supporter into important appointments to take notes and help the person remember and discuss her options.