Peter Blanck
Supported decision-making (SDM) is a paradigm in which people use friends, family and professionals to help them address the situations and choices they encounter in everyday life. To examine emergent issues in SDM in research, law, and policy, the Journal of Disability Policy Studies (JDPS) is presenting a special issue of articles guest edited by Peter Blanck, University Professor and chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute.
The special JDPS issue examines SDM from American and comparative law, research and policy perspectives, as recognized in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and from the perspective of the lived experience. SDM is used to empower individuals to make their own decisions to the maximum extent possible to increase self-determination. It is an alternative to restrictive guardianship or substitute decision-making regimes to which persons with cognitive and mental health disabilities historically have been relegated.
