Preserving and Encouraging Self-Determination in Adult Protection

Abstract

The planned project examines the historical and today’s practice of adult protection in respect to practices, organizational structures and cultures which preserve and encourage clients' self-determination. The general research question is which practices serve for the preservation and the encouragement of self-determination best and on what organizational structures and cultures do they rely on. The project has four intertwined parts: In the main part of the project, we focus on the decision-making process of the adult protection authorities and on the guardianships respectively deputyships, which are conducted by professional guardians respectively, deputies. With the objective to understand how and under which circumstances these practices have developed, the project will reconstruct the historical development of these practices in three cantons (Zürich, Bern, Aargau), identifying continuities and transformations within three times periods between 1960 until today. The data material consists of case files, expert interviews and documents describing the organizations of adult protection and their processes. In a second part, a legal analysis on the law regulations regarding adult protection since 1960 on the federal law level as well as on the cantonal law level in three cantons will be carried out. In the third project part a historical discourse analysis will answer questions on the conception of self-determination in the three periods. The fourth part of the project will elaborate recommendations for the preservation and the encouragement of self-determination.