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Abstract: 

Supported Decision-Making (SDM) is generating attention and advocates these days, but as Loree Cook-Daniels asserts in this thought-provoking review, SDM is not getting the careful scrutiny it should. The concept hit the world stage as part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. The National Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making calls SDM “the right we all have to make our own decisions and direct our own lives,” but Ms. Cook-Daniels concludes, after having read a great many reports and documents on SDM, that one of the explicit goals of SDM seems to be to diminish the use of substituted decision-making, also known as guardianship—and that what appears to be a positive-sounding rights approach may also bring changes that could chip away protections for the elderly and disabled, unless some previously ignored issues are addressed.

Keywords: Supported Decision-Making (SDM)

Affiliations:  1: FORGE.