By Suzi Morales
innovation
Over the last few years, the country has been riveted by the unraveling of Britney Spears’ conservatorship, in which her father dominated her life and directed virtually all of her decisions, including her time with her children, reproductive health, work schedule, finances, and even her communication with others.
The story cast a rare spotlight on issues of guardianship, which in Spears’ case partially resulted from her mental health struggles.
Suffolk Law’s Health Law Clinic (HLC) has been working at the forefront of another adult guardianship issue that is less sensational, perhaps, but no less important: examining how people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities can avoid guardianship and maintain autonomy in making important life decisions.
In Massachusetts, the HLC team has been advocating for limitations and alternatives to guardianship, including Supported Decision-Making (SDM), which allows those individuals to pick a group of people to help support them in making their own decisions—as opposed to a guardian making important choices for the person in areas like health care and financial matters.
Maggie Austen, JD ’22, and Kyla Goolsby, JD ’22, recently drafted and oversaw the signing of an SDM agreement. The document laid out a decision-making structure that put their client, an 18-year-old with an intellectual disability, in the decision-making role, along with a team providing support.
The traditional guardianship model often starts with the assumption that intellectually disabled individuals are not capable of making important decisions, Austen says. “The SDM model starts with the premise that all individuals can make their own decisions if provided the support and accommodations to do so.”
Austen calls herself an “ADA baby.” Born with a vision impairment months after the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, she has long been interested in advocating for disability rights. Goolsby, for her part, developed a passion for health law at Suffolk Law and recently started as a law fellow at Fresenius Medical Care North America.
The HLC has partnered with attorneys at the Center for Public Representation and the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council to educate the public and provide client representation around SDM.
Last year Austen, Goolsby, and other students in the HLC submitted written testimony to the Massachusetts Legislature in support of legislation that would require Bay State courts to consider alternatives, like SDM, prior to issuing guardianship orders. If passed, such legislation could result in fewer unnecessary and overbroad guardianships, allowing individuals with disabilities to retain more decision-making autonomy in their lives.
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Illustration via Getty Images
winter 2023
