The Law Handbook 2024

Chapter 8.1: Understanding disability and the law 789 has a responsibility to ensure the safety of children, it is sometimes discriminatory against parents with cognitive impairment and is not always good at understanding the supports available. The Independent Family Advocacy and Support program run by Victoria Legal Aid can assist parents with cognitive impairment who have had contact from the child protection system (see www.legalaid. vic.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/independent- family-advocacy-and-support) . The role of advocacy for people with cognitive impairments For many people with cognitive impairments, the information in this handbook will be inaccessible. They will need assistance to understand the concepts, seek information and advice, and support to navigate the legal processes. Independent, non-legal advocacy is available to people with disability, with specialist advocacy for people with cognitive impairment, parents with cognitive impairment, and people seeking support from their peers to learn self-advocacy skills. Non- legal advocates can also assist with ensuring the person has adequate supports in place through the National Disability Insurance Scheme ( NDIS ); the absence of these supports is often the catalyst for legal issues that arise. They can also assist people with cognitive impairment to access informal support for decision-making, as discussed below. Contact details for these organisations are at the end of this chapter. Supporting a person with cognitive impairment to access support from non- legal advocacy can assist them to deal both with legal processes and systems and the connections between legal issues and other areas of life. Supported decision-making We all need help making important decisions. We talk to family and friends, we ask for expert advice, we look up things on the internet. For people with a cognitive impairment, some decisions have complex implications that can be difficult to grasp, so having a more formal way of being supported to make those decisions is helpful. A person with cognitive impairment may have an informal arrangement with a family member or friend, where they are supported to make decisions and manage their affairs. Informal arrangements might be with an individual, a number of close family members, or with a circle of support people, and may be a practical and positive way of supporting the person to have choice in their life without other restrictions put in place. However, the high rate of abuse of people with cognitive impairment means that it is important to ensure that these arrangements: • are voluntary – if a person has others involved in making decisions for them without their consent, there is a danger that this is an abusive arrangement; • are transparent – having a circle of support people ensures that others are involved to keep the wishes of the person as a focus, whereas an arrangement with a friend who does not disclose the details may be more open to abuse over time; • are beneficial – having a family member help with finances can be great, but if the person with cognitive impairment finds themselves without money for important things, the arrangement may not be right for them, and in some cases might be financially abusive; • are flexible – a young adult with cognitive impairment may be happy for their parent to handle their finances and make some decisions for them, but as they increase their skills, they may wish to have more control of these choices. An informal arrangement that does not allow for the person to take back control is not voluntary. Supportive power of attorney A person with cognitive impairment can choose to appoint a supportive power of attorney who can gather information for them and assist them with making important decisions. If they have the capacity to make such an appointment, they also have the capacity to revoke it if they change their mind. A supportive power of attorney does not have the authority to make decisions for the person (see Chapter 8.6: Understanding powers of attorney). Supportive guardians and administrators VCAT can appoint supportive guardians and administrators if this is beneficial to the person with cognitive impairment (see Chapter 8.5: Guardianship and medical treatment).