Resources

Supported Decision Making (SDM) Resources and Tools

• Supported Decision Making in Minnesota: Interim Report January 2025: This report describes current work occurring in Minnesota to provide and promote alternatives to guardianship. This work is funded by MN DHS.
• Interested in using Supported Decision Making as an alternative to guardianship but unsure where to start? WINGS MN and the MN Judicial Branch have created a Minnesota-specific Supported Decision Making Agreement to support Supported Decision Making. To download a copy of a Minnesota-specific Supported Decision Making Agreement form, click here (SDMA 5.16.23_WINGS)
• The Council on Quality and Leadership’s Supported Decision-Making: An Update on Trends in the United States – The Council on Quality and Leadership and Supported Decision-Making Part Two: SDM In Action  – The Council on Quality and Leadership – Receive insight into SDM from a recognized expert, access data around decision-making authority, learn more about SDM from a recognized expert, and hear from people putting SDM into action.
• The following webinars are about supported decision making and are for different audiences.
  • For people subjected to guardianship: WINGS MN Supported Decision Making and Guardianship: Which One is Right for Me? (November 2022)
  • For Guardians: What Every Guardian Should Know About Supported Decision Making and Other Less Restrictive Alternatives
  • For Court-Appointed Attorneys: Supported Decision Making for Court-Appointed Attorneys
  • For Court Visitors: Supported Decision Making for Court Visitors
  • For Providers: Decision Making for Questionably Capacitated Patients in Health Care Settings: What’s a Provider to Do?
• Guardianship & Supported Decision Making Explained: Understanding or explaining guardianship and supported decision making can be challenging. The Center for Excellence in Supported Decision Making at Volunteers of America MN, with funding from the MN Board on Aging, has created brief whiteboard animation videos to help explain these complex concepts: Understanding Guardianship; How To Do Supported Decision Making; and Supported Decision Making in Practice. All three videos are available in English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish and are available on YouTube. (Translations funded through an SDM Grant from MN Department of Human Services Aging and Disability Services).
• Rethinking Guardianship for Transition Age Youth: The Promise of Supported Decision Making, PACER Inspiring Possibilities Conference, 10/2021
• Charting the Life Course Nexus has Supported-Decision Making tools in both Spanish and English.
• The National Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making is a rich source of information about supported decision making efforts throughout the United States, has training and information videos, suggested SDM forms, and more.
• MN DHS has published a series of videos on Supported Decision Making by Jonathan Martinis; public and professional audiences are welcome to incorporate these into their own training events.
• Supported Decision Making With People at the Margins of Autonomy: This is a recent article (2020) arguing in support of Supported Decision Making.
• BoggsCast Podcast: Episode 10: Supported Decision-Making with Jonathan Martinis, Esq., JD: Jonathan Martinis, Esq, JD, Senior Director for Law and Policy in the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, discusses supported decision-making.
• The American Bar Association, with support from the National Resource Center on Supported Decision Making has developed the PRACTICAL TOOL, a helpful guide to assist in addressing a person’s need for assistance in decision making.
• Adult Guardianship Decision Helper – This tool helps understand options before asking a court for a guardianship or conservatorship.

Guardianship Tools and Resources

• Minnesota Judicial Branch has many resources on their newly redesigned webpage.  Visit the Guardianship Help Topics, Before Guardianship tab and look for Less Restrictive Alternatives to Guardianship Handout as well as a host of training webinars such as: SDM & Guardianship: Which One is Right for Me?, SDM for Attorneys, Decision Making for Questionably Capacitated Patients in Health Care Settings: What’s a Provider to Do?, and more!
• Click below to download the plain language guide and worksheets to The Arc Minnesota Bill of Rights for People under Guardianship with Worksheets (Fillable)
• Guardianship Decision Tree: Use this tool, created by MN DHS, WINGS, and CESDM, to help inform if guardianship is the most appropriate intervention for an individual and understand other options available.
• Guardianship and Conservatorship Complaint Process: Individuals can report complaints or concerns if they think that a court-appointed guardian or conservator is not acting in the best interest of the person subject to guardianship or conservatorship. They can submit their complaint by 1 of the 2 ways: Click “Review Process” on the Conservatorship and Guardianship Complaint Process page, or Email SCAOExaminer@courts.state.mn.us.  Call the complaint hotline at 651-215-0032 with any questions about the process.

• The MN Gov Council on Developmental Disabilities produced a series of 4 videos featuring Bud Rosenfield, Ombusdman, explaining Supported Decision-Making and other Guardianship terms.
• Minnesota Elder Justice Center’s video library has many resources about guardianship and supported decision making. Videos of note include: Revocation, Resignation, Expiration: The End of a Decision-Making Relationship , Concepts in Capacity , and Culturally Responsive Approaches to Guardianship, Supported Decision Making, and Health Care Directives

Organizations of Interest

• The Administration of Community Living’s (ACL) Center on Youth Voice, Youth Choice (CYVYC) provides resources, research, and other tools to support people to explore alternatives to guardianship. This website has more details about alternatives to guardianship in each state, documents that explain guardianship, and stories of youth who are pursuing alternatives to guardianship.
• The American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging, a 2016 ACL grantee, establishes additional state WINGS groups.
• Minnesota Association for Guardianship and Conservatorship (MAGiC) is a membership organization of guardians and conservators and other professionals who work with guardians, conservators, and the people who have guardians/conservators.  MAGiC has also published a Code of Ethics, Bill of Rights, and Standards of Practice for professional guardians and conservators, as well as Standards for other fiduciaries, including Power of Attorney, Representative Payee, and Trusts.
• National Guardianship Association is a membership organization of guardians throughout the U.S.  NGA recently published a position statement in support of Supported Decision Making.
• Center for Guardianship Certification lists criteria for certified guardians, search for certified guardians, and information about filing a complaint against a certified guardian.

Maltreatment Information and Resources

• Contact MN Adult Abuse Reporting Center (MAARC) to report suspected maltreatment of a vulnerable adult, 24 hours per day/seven days a week:  1-844-880-1574.
• Vulnerable Adult statute defines maltreatment of vulnerable adults (abuse, financial exploitation, neglect), mandated reporters and reporting maltreatment requirements.
• To better understand the process that occurs following a complaint of guardianship or conservatorship abuses in MN, see The Judicial Response Protocol for Guardianship and Conservatorship Abuses.

Statutes & Legal Resources

• MN Mandate to report on current grant funding to promote and provide alternatives to guardianship
• Minnesota’s Public Guardianship law is Statute 252A Developmental Disability Protection.
• Minnesota’s private guardianship/conservatorship law is found in Article 5 of the Uniform Probate Code, Protection of Persons Under Disability and Their Property, 524.5-101 – 524.5-903.
• Minnesota Judicial Branch provides, among other relevant information about guardianship and conservatorship:  Guardianship/Conservatorship forms and a detailed informational Guardianship Manual, as well as Guardianship/Conservatorship Case Status and hosts Minnesota’s Guardianship/Conservatorship Registry.
• Lawhelp MN offers many resources including fillable forms.
• The Minnesota Attorney General publishes Probate and Planning, an overview which includes health care directives, power of attorney, guardianship, and conservatorship.
• MN Department of Human Services has helpful information about identifying and reporting suspected cases of maltreatment.
• Harris Case is an important case decision from the Minnesota Court of Appeals, regarding harassment restraining orders on behalf of a person subject to guardianship and the right of the person to visitation with others of their choice.