Supported Decision Making and Conservatorship

Supported Decision Making

Supported Decision Making

Supported Decision Making is about helping people with disabilities (such as severe mental illness) make as many decisions about their own lives as possible. Conservatorship allows someone else to make decisions for you. Right now, many Tennesseans do not know there are other options for help in making decisions. The Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities is working to educate Tennesseans with disabilities, their families and professionals who support them about less restrictive alternatives like supported decision making.

Click here for supported decision making information from the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities

Conservatorship

Conservatorship is a court process for someone with a disability (such as severe mental illness) who has become either partially or totally impaired and lacks the ability to absorb information, to understand its implications, to correctly perceive the environment, or to understand the relationship between his or her desires and actions. When a person’s autonomy becomes impaired, others step in to make choices on the person’s behalf in order to promote the person’s best interests and to protect the individual from harm. The person given the decision-making ability is called a Conservator
.Learn more about conservatorship below:

Conservatorship Association of Tennessee

Fifty Forward

Nashville Office of Conservatorship Management