Introduction to information gathering

Hello and welcome to session three on information gathering.

When you are faced with making a decision, the amount and type of information you want or are interested in may vary.

In this session we will show you how to gather the information you need and want so that you can make informed choices with or without the support of professionals.

To make good decisions based on informed choice, you need to be knowledgeable about the decision you are making.

What does that mean?

Firstly, you need to be informed on the many different facts about this particular decision.

And secondly, you then have to understand these facts and how they can impact on your child and family.

So before you make a decision, you need to, gather the information you need, understand the information you have been given, think about the information, then use the information to make a decision.

In addition, through this process of information gathering, you still need to keep in mind what you have learnt about cognitive biases in the previous session.

So in general, parents and carers who want to make informed choices on behalf of their child have three sources of information.

There are the professionals with specialist expertise and current experience in their field of practice, the internet or other media sources, and lastly, there are people with experiences that are similar to your situation.

For example, other parents raising a child with the same diagnoses as your child.

We will now look at each of these and consider the pros and cons of using information from these different sources.