Hello, and welcome to session four.

In this session, we will talk about informed choice.

In previous sessions, you have learnt about setting goals to start you thinking about some of the big decisions you need to make on behalf of your children.

You looked at how you make decisions in real life, and how cognitive biases can affect your thinking and the mistakes or irrational decisions you can make.

In the last session, we discussed the need for reliable and balanced information that you understand, so you can become knowledgeable about the issues or options relevant to your decision-making.

All of these topics come together as we delve into making informed decisions for your child and family.

Before we begin, let’s just clarify the difference between informed choice and informed consent.

An informed choice is based on you having good knowledge about your options for the decision you are making. 

And, importantly, the decision you make has to reflect your values and preferences.

Informed consent is a legal concept.

It is different from informed choice.

You may have heard the term informed consent when seeing a health professional.

Common law says that all competent adults can either agree to or refuse medical treatment.

If this informed consent has not been given, then health professionals will face legal consequences.

A brief chat about the meaning and purpose of informed consent usually takes place when your doctor or other health professionals, such as a nurse, ask you to sign a consent form.

If you sign that form, they will go ahead with a certain treatment or rehabilitation option.

This for is a legally binding document. It is meant to protect both the patient and the doctor.

In Australia, a doctor is legally required to provide information to a reasonable person standard.

In obtaining informed consent, there is no requirement for the doctor to consider the preferences or values of the patient providing consent.

Now that you briefly understand what is informed consent, we will spend the rest of this session going through the importance of informed choice.