In December 2022, the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) received a grant through the Australian Department of Social Services to pilot a project titled Culturally Safe Supported Decision-making.
The project began on 1 April 2023 and concluded 30 June 2024.
The project focused on understanding culturally important issues and how to respectfully support First Nations clients. It aligns with Australia's Disability Strategy Safety Targeted Action Plan objectives 3.2 and 3.3.
About the project
The pilot involved interviews with over 30 of the OPA's First Nations clients, using tools that were created through co-design with many stakeholders. Its aims were to:
- create culturally appropriate supported decision-making tools and associated practices to assist OPA staff with their role in supporting First Nations clients. These were aimed at learning the life preferences, health care needs, accommodation wishes and access to mainstream services for First Nations clients.
- enhance the overall understanding of cultural safety and practice within the OPA in relation to working with First Nations clients
- develop tools that would assist other agencies and systems to understand and adopt culturally safe supported decision-making practice for their First Nations clients
- add to the growing body of knowledge about issues of importance to First Nations people to ensure their human rights are respected and upheld in all areas of life.
What we did
The project has delivered:
- a culturally safe supported decision-making tool
- a training package to support culturally safe practices, including a Guideline (PDF, 667.2 KB) and training video
- documentation of the will and preferences of those First Nations clients who participated in the project
- education and information for other service providers and community members to increase their understanding of supported decision-making and its benefits
- findings on how the OPA can continue its work to improve the lives of First Nations clients.
