Capacity and Supported Decision-Making Webinar

Speakers

• More details about Dr Craig Sinclair

  Dr Craig Sinclair

  Dr Craig Sinclair is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, and Conjoint Senior Research Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia. His key research interests include advance care planning and supported decision-making, particularly among older adults and people living with dementia. He currently leads a program of research in ageing and decision-making, including an MRFF funded trial of training in supported decision-making for staff within the Australian aged care sector, and an NHMRC funded clinical trial of reminiscence based life story work and advance care planning, among older and culturally diverse adults receiving home care services in Australia.

• More details about Karen Williams

  Karen Williams

  Karen Williams is currently the Principal Lawyer for ADA Law. ADA Law provides legal advocacy for people having their capacity questioned in Tribunals – including guardianship and mental health matters. Karen has also worked as a Social Worker and Manager in health services. Karen is currently studying her PhD, Innovation at UNE Law School on Supporting aged care decision making from hospital.

• More details about Theresa Flavin

  Theresa Flavin

  Theresa Flavin is an Australian human rights activist, advocate, author, and Lived Experience Dementia Consultant who champions the dignity, autonomy, and genuine inclusion of people living with dementia. Diagnosed with younger-onset dementia around 2012 while in her mid-40s, Theresa previously worked in risk management and finance at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) with special interest in superannuation. After diagnosis, she channeled her professional background and personal experience into advocacy, rejecting prescribed disengagement in favour of living well and driving systemic change. Theresa is a leading voice for supported decision-making, emphasising it as a human right rather than a clinical concession. She has authored work on the topic, including the 2020 peer-reviewed article “Supported decision making for people living with dementia” in the journal Dementia, and continues to write and speak on related issues such as “social directives” that protect identity, relationships, care preferences, and personal agency. Her 2025 piece “Let's create a social directive” in Australian Ageing Agenda further develops these ideas. As a researcher and Lived Experience Dementia Consultant at UNSW, Theresa serves as a chief investigator on projects led by Dr Craig Sinclair (UNSW School of Psychology). These initiatives co-design training and tools to help aged-care providers meet requirements under Australia's new Aged Care Act 2024 and strengthened Quality Standards placing people with dementia at the centre of decision-making processes. She co-leads working groups of people with lived experience to refine resources for staff and ensure true co-design rather than token consultation. Theresa has also worked as a Lived Experience Consultant with Hammond Care Dementia Centre, served as a human rights advisor with Dementia Alliance International, contributed to OPAN's National Older Persons Reference Group, and spoken at the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing. She advocates strongly for mandatory lived-experience frameworks in research, policy and service design, reablement strategies, and the prevention of sexual assault of older people and those with dementia. A mother of five and grandmother based in Sydney, Theresa continues to insist that people living with dementia must be treated as experts in their own lives - working with them, not merely for or about them.

• More details about Dr Nola Ries

  Dr Nola Ries

  Dr Nola Ries is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is an experienced legal and social science researcher with expertise in: law, health and ageing; legal aspects of health system reform; and the ethical and legal governance of health research. Nola is a co-founder of the Dementia Law Network, Co-Theme Leader (Law, Ethics & Regulation) for the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative (UARC), member of the UTS Law, Health, Justice Research Group and a member of the UTS Medical Research Ethics Committee. Professor Ries has a strong focus on applied research, community engagement and interprofessional collaboration between legal and health sectors. She leads a program of research on: legal issues for people living with dementia, their carers and family; dementia capability for the legal profession; and legal and policy frameworks for a dementia-inclusive society. Nola has expertise in qualitative research with professional and consumer participants. She has over 100 publications, research reports and related outputs, including more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 25 book chapters. Nola also teaches Research Methodology, Elder Law and Law & Medicine. Formerly a solicitor and barrister in British Columbia, Canada, Nola is also admitted as a solicitor in NSW.