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Purpose: At least 5% of people in Australia and the USA have cognitive impairment and require support for decision-making. This paper details a research program whereby an evidence-based Support for Decision Making Practice Framework has been developed for those who support people with cognitive disabilities to make their own decisions across life domains.

Methods: The La Trobe framework was derived from a research program modeled on the Medical Research Council four-phase approach to development and evaluation of complex interventions. We completed phase one (development) by: (1) systematically reviewing peer-reviewed literature; and (2) undertaking qualitative exploration of the experience of support for decision-making from the perspectives of people with cognitive disabilities and their supporters through seven grounded theory studies. Results of phase two (feasibility and piloting) involving direct support workers and health professionals supported phase three (evaluation) and four (implementation), currently underway.

Results: The framework outlines the steps, principles, and strategies involved in support for decision-making. It focuses on understanding the will and preferences of people with cognitive disabilities and guides those who provide support including families, support workers, guardians, and health professionals.

Conclusions: This framework applies across diverse contemporary contexts and is the first evidence-based guide to support for decision-making.

This report is part of a comprehensive project to develop international systems and methodologies for monitoring the human rights of people with disabilities. It represents the second phase of the Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) project, the specific aim of which, is to develop capacity building tools and resources to enable people with disabilities to effectively monitor systems, individual experiences and media. This work would be useful to anyone with an interest in human rights, disability and development and the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Presents the preliminary results of the project Hispano-American Connection of Health Program - EHAS- Alto Amazonas, that investigates how the new information and communication technologies can help improve the processes of primary health care and to have a positive impact in the health of the people

This framework, the product of a participatory research project on the use of communications for HIV prevention, finds conventional communications that focus on behaviour change limited in their scope and effectiveness. It questions the relationship between knowledge and behaviour, and the stress in ‘behaviour change’ communication on individual change. For sustainable change, the influence of a number of domains of social context need to be addressed, including: political and policy frameworks, gender, socio-economic status, spirituality and religion, and culture. It builds on these domains to create broad regional strategies for communications in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. Its suggestions for future national strategies combine interpersonal communication and mass media in key areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. It stipulates that participatory processes are central to designing and operationalising national strategies