When people become adults, they have rights and responsibilities under the law. People with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are not usually able to exercise these rights and responsibilities without support. The Transition to Adulthood Project is interested in how people with severe intellectual disabilities become adults, and how stages of legal independence are handled with their decision-making supporters.
Not much research has been done with people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, or on what happens and what it means for them and their decision-making supporters as they become legal adults. This research will help increase our understanding of what happens during this stage of a person’s life and how our current laws are working in people’s lives.
I’m interested in how our current legal and administrative systems (like the NDIS, Centrelink, Disability and Community Services, guardianship and administration, banking and finance, and other similar agencies) work for young people with profound and multiple disabilities as they become adults.
This study has been approved by the QUT Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 1900000206).
Michelle King is a PhD candidate at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Queensland University of Technology. You can contact her by email at kingm8@qut.edu.au or using the contact form here.
Transition to Adulthood Project 