Office of the Public Advocate
This discussion paper draws from OPA guardianship practice experience and case examples to explore the ethical questions that arise when working to promote the autonomy (‘will and preferences’) of guardianship clients who are subject to targeted manipulation. To provide a framework for this discussion, the paper draws on an alternative model for conceptualising vulnerability (2014). It describes different forms of targeted manipulation, including indoctrination, coercive control and targeted incentives or ‘bribes’, that are seen in the lives of people with disability subject to guardianship.
While there have always been manipulators in family violence relationships and, commonly, in dysfunctional families, the paper is particularly concerned with exploring and describing the forms of targeted manipulation being used by NDIS-funded organisations and workers to exploit NDIS participants.
This discussion paper was initially distributed to select participants from government, safeguarding agencies, the legal sector, peak bodies and academia, who were invited to attend a roundtable entitled Targeted Manipulation and Coercion in Adult Safeguarding Contexts, held in Carlton on 24 September 2024.
