Introduction

This means supporting people who need help to make decisions. Retaining and weighing up information, and expressing a decision, depends on understanding the key information in the first place; so professionals need to present information in understandable ways and draw on other practitioners such as speech and language therapists or interpreters as well as putting the person at ease by meeting in a familiar place.  

This section will help you to:

• Have a greater understanding of the concept of supported decision making 
• Understand the importance of supported decision making. 
• Understand the importance of the threshold of understanding  
• Understand the role of language and communication in supported decision making 
• Be able to identify practical ways to support an individual to make decisions