5 Steps of supported decision making

Supported decision making is about having the right support to make your own decisions.

On this page, you can find out how to use our 5 Steps of Supported decision making in your own life.

In our Make Decisions Real project, we talked to people with an intellectual disability and their supporters from around Australia about making decisions.

We also looked at supported decision making resources that already existed.

We found that most of the resources were made for supporters, not decision makers.

People with an intellectual disability also said that some of the resources were confusing and had difficult words.

We came up with 5 steps to help people with an intellectual disability and their supporters understand supported decision making and put it into practice:

Explore the decision – think about the decision. What do you want to do, and why?
Involve the right people – get support to make decisions from people you trust.
Think about options and consequences – look at your options and think about any risks.
Make the decision real – put your plan in motion and make it happen!
Reflect on what happened – look back on your decision. Think about how it went, and what you learnt from it.

We have made some posters, fact sheets and postcards to help you remember and use the 5 steps.

You can also find these factsheets and posters translated into 10 more languages here.

We also made some conversation cards called Make Decisions Real – Focus on Money. These cards are to help people with an intellectual disability and their supporters think about talk about making decisions.

You can download the posters, fact sheets and postcards below.