Self Determination Needs to Be More than a Buzzword

I love, love, LOVE the philosophy behind self determination. Indeed, it hits on some of my deepest held values such as freedom, responsibility, and autonomy. The movement toward self determination philosophies in the social services (bravo New Jersey!) is not just commendable but IMO a requirement for human rights to be upheld. I would be offended by anyone who did not approach me from a philosophy of self determination.

However (you didn't think I'd post something like this with out getting snarky did you?), my experience with services is that they often have made little, if any, consideration of the types of tools and education that is required for me to actually HAVE self determination.

Instructions and forms are not written in ways that I can understand. I end up confused and frustrated because I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing or what is going on. Getting that information from case workers requires excellent communication skills that I don't have, and excessive time I don't have either. Often I'm left asking others to Translate information for me, or asking "Do I actually need to understand this?" and setting the material aside when someone else tells me "No." This is not self determination. True self determination requires the provision of materials for understanding decision making processes and options in a format that is accessible.

There is little recognition I may not a priori possess the skills required and need some training. For example, I have no idea how to conduct an interview, so setting up interviews and telling me, OK decide your provider based on these interviews is horrifically stressful, confusing, and unproductive. Once more I end up relying on others to carry the brunt of decision making processes for me because I don't have the skills I need to make the decisions for myself, or more often, muddling through in a state of anxiety and confusion pretending like I'm actually making informed choices when I'm really just guessing. This is not self determination. True self determination requires provision of education that builds prerequisite and critical skills for engaging in self determination process.

I am completely capable of making decisions for myself, and there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be able to have full self determination in all aspects of my life. But in order to do so, I must, MUST be given the tools to make it possible.

Is this a problem that only exists with the services in the area I live in? Or is it more endemic? While I'd love to think the problem is local to me, I rather bet it exists elsewhere as well. Informed choice requires more than just some PC language and a smile, it requires that materials for giving informed choice are comprehensible. How can we get service organizations to do better?