Adult safeguarding in Australia after the Disability Royal Commission

Abstract

The final report from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability contains a number of important reform recommendations that, if implemented, will reshape Australia’s adult safeguarding environment. At the same time, these recommendations—which cover a variety of fields ranging from adult guardianship through to supported accommodation—are relatively modest; indeed, many of them have their origins in earlier systemic advocacy initiatives. Two central challenges confront their adoption: the fact that many of these recommendations are directed to the states and territories (not just the Commonwealth Government, which established the Royal Commission); and the lack of immediate apparent nexus between many of the proposed reforms and the harms suffered by people with disabilities that led to the Royal Commission’s work. Both of these challenges can be met, but this will take ongoing advocacy by people with disabilities and their supporters.

Keywords:

• Adult safeguarding
• adult guardianship
• supported decision making
• intellectual disability

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the editors of this journal for their very helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. Thanks also to the many colleagues with whom I have had discussions about the subject matter of this article, including Colleen Pearce, Phil Grano, Michael Wells, Rosalind Croucher, Kay Patterson, and Tracey Martell.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).