Bizchut New Model: Supported Decision-Making Service for Persons with Disabilities
Bizchut is proud to present its Model (Published 2017) for supported decision making based on our pilot, which took place in Israel between 2014-2015. This report includes a proposal for a support service alongside a discussion of practical dilemmas. The appendices include a summary of the new Israeli law, implementation of article 12 in various contexts (שelderly persons and the Sharia courts) and such like.
The report addresses practical issues such as: What are the different elements and stages of the support? Who can be a supporter? Ethical dilemmas and principles; How to approach the dilemmas concerning possible risk and harm? What should training for supporters look like? Is support for the elderly different from support for younger people with disabilities?
This is Bizchut’s second report on alternatives to Guardianship based on article 12 principles. Read the full report about Supported Decision-Making Service.
From the introduction to Bizchut’s Model: “In 2014, Bizchut launched a project funded by the European Union, entitled “My life in my hands – Article 12”. The objective of the project was to promote the right of persons with disabilities to make their own decisions regarding their lives on the basis of supported decision-making. This was a new element added to our ongoing work on this issue… Between 2014-2016, we gave more than 90 lectures and training sessions on the issue to over 3,000 persons with disabilities, family members and professionals, including family court judges. We established and promoted a coalition of 20 organizations that pushed for reform of the Guardianship Law and recognition for supported decision-making. We have produced information sheets, video clips, and reports on the need for developing alternatives to guardianship. We were partners in a historic move in the Knesset for the amendment of the law and recognition of supported decision-making as an alternative to guardianship. We ran the first pilot of its kind in Israel on supported decision-making, designed to help formulate a model for support. We helped individuals ask the courts to cancel guardianship and recognize alternatives…
The model presented here is one of the major products of Bizchut’s Article 12 Project. It is the culmination of hundreds of hours of support and accompaniment provided to persons with disabilities, and no fewer hours of thinking about how accompaniment and support should be given…”