Many people who experience psychosocial disability also experience not being able to make their own decisions. Substitute decision making, where one person makes a decision on behalf of another, is formalised through guardianship and treatment orders, and, sometimes happens informally, by family and carers.

Yet having control over your own life, or the right to -self-determination, is becoming firmly embedded in Australian service delivery and legal reform. The NDIS aims to deliver choice and control over supports and services, while jurisdictions across Australia are reviewing mental health and guardianship laws to ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, are able to retain and use their right to decide.

Supported decision making (SDM) has a place fulfilling the goals of these reforms. It enables people whose decision making capacity is understood to be impaired to have as much support as they need to be engaged in decision making. SDM practice is developing in Australia and may not be well known within the mental health sector. This paper will describe supported decision making and what it might mean for the mental health work force, guardians and within the lives of people who experience psychosocial disability, their families and carers.

As consumers and carers, Samantha and Janelle strive to utilise their life experiences to increase understanding and awareness of mental illness thereby reducing stigma in their local community on the Gold Coast. After developing an idea and project proposal about information talks that Samantha and Janelle wanted to host across the Gold Coast, they presented their project proposal to Gold Coast Medicare Local and Partners In Recovery to assess the viability of their idea being manifested into an actual project. This proposal was warmly welcomed and given immense support by both Gold Coast Medicare Local and Partners in Recovery. The beauty of this project is that Samantha and Janelle, as people with lived experience, are able to address issues/concerns, including substance abuse, homelessness, identifying their needs and coping strategies that they have encountered either directly or indirectly in their recovery journeys.By sharing this information it is hoped that people who attend these information discussions will have an improved understanding of ways to maintain good mental health, where to get help for themselves or their friends and family members and understand that those living with mental health issues are able to be productive and to be included in our society.

The use of Trialogue presents a unique and emerging intervention and opportunity to address topical and sometimes difficult issues that involve consumers, families/carers and practitioners as key stake holders in mental health service settings. Triaglogue practice emerged from a number of sources: European model described in the ‘First Vienna Trialogue’ (Amering, Hofer & Rath2002) to an independently develop model by the Bouverie Centre in Melbourne. Recent conformation by the World Psychiatry Association recommends Trialogue as a key item in their best practice for working with service users and family carers (Wallcraft et.al 2011). The Trialogue process fosters a respectful and informed environment to acknowledge, share and explore the different stakeholder’s perspectives. Firstly by describing the Trialogue practice model developed by the Bouverie Centre, this presentation will provide a sense of its general application. Secondly, it will look at how it can be used and tailored for local service forums and settings.