תפיסות ושיקולים של עובדות סוציאליות בתהליכי מינוי של אפוטרופסות וקבלת החלטות נתמכת בקרב אנשים עם מוגבלויות: המלצות להכשרה ולמדיניות

In 2016, a significant reform of Israel's Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law(1962) was enacted, known as Amendment 18. This reform seeks to minimize the use of guardianship and promote less restrictive alternatives, such a supported decision-making. Given the central role of social workers in the legal capacity domain, we conducted a series of studies to explore the perceptions and considerations of social workers who work in the field of disability. In this article, we take an integrative and broad perspective to discuss the implications of our findings. Specifically, we examine the dual goals social workers attribute to guardianship – preventing risks and enhancing quality of life – and the factors they consider when making recommendations, including the client’s diagnosis, functional level, and personal wishes. Our discussion focuses on the significant gap between the vision of Amendment 18 and the actual perceptions and practices of social workers. Based on our findings, we propose several recommendations for training and policy reform, aimed at fostering the comprehensive implementation of Amendment 18. These changes would better enable individuals with disabilities to fully exercise their right to legal capacity.