WEBVTT

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I work in a health care field and

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support people who have intellectual disabilities.  I find that in health care literature, there's a great

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deal of focus on a person's capacity in terms of assessment of

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their capacity to make a decision.  This is important.  However, there's not as much emphasis

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out there on exploring what supports a person might need to communicate their

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perspective - what they hope for, what they're scared of - in addition to

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what they understand.  I spend a lot of time as a clinician explaining things in ways

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that people understand and, more importantly, listening to people and helping them sort out

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what it is that they want to happen, or what they like or dislike about particular options.

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Regardless of a person's capacity, they need to be heard, even if the

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decisions that they're making for themselves aren't the decisions we would hope,

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or there are things about the decisions that they don't understand, or things they are frightened about

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At least we know what the person thinks, and we can negotiate alternative solutions

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when we understand what the issues are.  Being able to communicate is really the first step

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for all of us, in exercising some kind of control in our lives, particularly in healthcare

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settings.