Fall Seminar: The Right to Make Choices: An Introduction to Supported Decision-Making

Join us for the second presentation in our Fall Seminar series on Thursday, October 8, 2015  from 1:00 – 3:00p ET to learn more about Supported Decision-Making (SDM) and an overview of the Jenny Hatch case at the UK Coldstream Research Campus Human Development Training Room (1525 Bull Lea Road, Lexington KY 40511) with live videoconferencing to sites around the state. This seminar will discuss how to support people with disabilities in gaining more independence to make choices about their future. We will discuss Jenny Hatch as an example of a young woman who advocated and obtained independence from her parents to make her own choices about where she wanted to live.

Registration: Electronic registration will open September 14, 2015. Register here and select your attendance site. To become a remote site or for help registering, contact walt.bower@uky.edu

Presenter:

Jonathan Martinis, Legal Director, Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities and Project Director, National Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making. Jonathan Martinis has over 20 years’ experience representing people with disabilities in cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act, The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The Social Security Act and other civil rights laws.  In 2013, he represented Margaret “Jenny” Hatch in the “Justice for Jenny” case, which held that Ms. Hatch has a right to use Supported Decision-Making instead of being subjected to a permanent, plenary guardianship. 

Martinis shares:

EVERYONE has the Right to Make Choices. Supported Decision-Making empowers and enables people with disabilities to make their own decisions and direct their own lives, with a little help from friends, family members, and professionals – just like everyone else! Join me to talk about ways Supported Decision-Making can help people with disabilities lead better, more independent, and more inclusive lives.

This seminar will provide an introduction to Supported Decision-Making (SDM) and an overview of the seminally important Jenny Hatch case. The presentation will include the theory and methodology behind SDM as well as its benefits and uses. Practical implications of SDM in employment, health care, education, and community integration will be emphasized. Discussion will include how SDM can fit into the CMS Final Rule and national SDM initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Be able to define Supported Decision-Making, as an alternative to guardianship and a means of increasing
    self-determination of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities;
  2. Understand the clinical support for and research-documented benefits of Supported Decision-Making and
    self-determination including improved life outcomes such as increased independence, employment, and
    community-integration;
  3. Identify practical uses for Supported Decision-Making across the life course, including in education, vocational rehabilitation, medical care and planning, and end-of-life planning;
  1. Understand efforts to access and implement Supported Decision-Making across the United States and internationally.

CEU’s are approved in Rehabilitation Counseling and Effective Instructional Leadership. CEU’s are pending in Social Work.

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