Starting May 7, 2025, if you are a person with a disability, you can use the attached form to make a Supported Decision‐Making Agreement (also called an “SDMA”). The Utah law that lets you do this is UCA 75-5-7. These instructions explain a Supported Decision‐Making Agreement and help you understand how to use the SDMA form.
Looking for the template? Create a Supported Decision-Making Agreement
What is “Supported Decision‐Making”?
Supported Decision‐Making (also called “SDM”) is a way you can make your own decisions with help you need and want. It helps you control your life and live the way you want, if your choices do not get you in serious trouble or hurt someone else. To use SDM, you pick friends, family members, and other people you trust to be your “supporters.”
Supporters do not make decisions for you. They help you make or communicate your own decisions, like where you want to live or who you want to live with; what services, supports, or medical care you want to get; where you want to work; and how you want to save or spend your money.
If you want them to, supporters can explain the good and bad of each choice you have in ways you understand, ask other people questions for you, help you get information, or tell somebody what you decide.
SDM is one alternative to guardianship. It does not take away your legal rights or give your supporters the right to overrule your own decisions.
To learn more about SDM, visit the National Resource Center for Supported Decision‐Making.
What is a “Supported Decision‐Making Agreement”?
A Supported Decision‐Making Agreement (“SDMA”) is the way to put an SDM relationship in writing. That way other people and organizations – like doctors, hospitals, banks, schools, service providers, and governmental agencies ‐‐ know who your supporters are, what decisions you want them to help you with, how you want them to help you, and for how long you want their help. SDMAs do not allow a formal supporter to make decisions for you or act in your place. YOU are the decision‐maker.
Who Can Use a Supported Decision‐Making Agreement (“SDMA”) Form?
If you are at least 18 years old and have a disability, you may be able to use the attached SDMA form.
However, if someone else legally makes some or all decisions for you – like a “guardian” or “conservator” picked by a court, or a person picked by you through a “power of attorney” or “health care directive” – you cannot use this SDMA form without that person seeing it first. You must invite that legal decision-maker to all conversations about your SDMA and also let that person see this completed form at least two weeks before you and your supporter sign it. If your SDMA covers an area in which that legal decision-maker can make decisions for you, the form will not be legal without that person also agreeing to sign it. If they do not sign it, you cannot use the form. For example, if you have a limited medical guardian, you cannot use this form to name supporters to help you with medical decisions without your guardian also signing the form. However, you may be able to use this form to name supporters to help you with financial or other non-medical decisions without getting your limited medical guardian’s permission.
Using an SDMA does not mean that only certain people can help you fill out this SDMA form. You can always ask a parent, guardian, or anyone else you trust to be part of any conversation about it or any decision you need to make.
Using an SDMA does not stop you from using other decision‐making tools, such as a Power of Attorney (a legal document that you can use to pick someone you trust to make decisions for you in certain situations).
Using this SDMA form is a choice. Nobody can make you sign this form. You should not feel pressured or forced to use it. It is your right not to sign this form if you don’t want to.
Who Can and Who Cannot Be a Formal Supporter under an SDMA?
You can have more than one formal supporter by having them all sign one SDMA or asking each one sign their own agreement.
When you use SDM, you should pick supporters who you know and trust, and who are good at helping you get the information you need to think through choices and make your own decisions.
A person who knows you well, listens to you, and wants YOU to make YOUR OWN decisions – and will not try to make those decisions for you – would be a good choice. On the other hand, a person who has hurt or taken advantage of you in the past, or who might do that in the future, would not be a good choice.
You may have several people – such as family members, friends, staff, professionals, and other people you trust – who help you use SDM in your life informally, without using this SDMA form. However, if you decide to put your SDM relationship in writing, you must know the rules about who can and who cannot be your formal supporter under Utah law.
Your formal supporter must be 18 years old or older.
Your formal supporter CANNOT be a person who is paid to provide support to you, unless they are your parent, stepparent, brother, or sister. For example, your formal supporter cannot be your support coordinator, case manager, direct support professional, or health care provider UNLESS they are your parent or sibling.
Even if the person is your relative, your formal supporter CANNOT be:
- A person found to have abused, neglected, or exploited another person.
- A person who has a protective or restraining order against them.
- A person who has been convicted of harming another, stealing, or a crime involving money.
The restrictions on who can be your formal supporter are listed in the law and in this sample SDMA form. Your formal supporter should sign the form to say none of the restrictions apply to them. If a person cannot honestly say none of the restrictions apply to them, they cannot be your formal supporter under the law.
Once I Want to Make an SDMA and Know I Can, What Is Next?
Unlike some other states, Utah’s SDMA law does not require a particular SDMA form to be used. Instead, it lists certain elements that an SDMA must have to be a legal document. The Disability Law Center developed a sample form that meets these requirements.
Before you fill out this sample SDMA form, talk to the people you want to be formal supporters to see if they will agree to help you in that way. It is a serious responsibility to be a formal supporter, and you want to make sure they understand the rules by reviewing these instructions and the SDMA form with them.
Once the person you trust has agreed to be your formal supporter, you should think about the kinds of decisions you want the SDMA to cover.
You do not need to have an attorney help you fill out the SDMA from. You can use these instructions.
In summary, this sample SDMA form has ten parts.
- In Part 1 (“Qualifying Adult with a Disability”), you agree you can use an SDMA because you have a disability and are at least 18 by marking the box next to “Yes” or “No.”
- In Part 2 (“Supporter Authority”), you pick what areas you want a Supporter(s) to help with by marking the box next to“Yes” or “No” for each of the options listed.
- You can decide if you want them to talk to or share some kinds of information with another supporter.
- By marking each “Yes” or “No” box below, you can also say what kind of help you want them to give you.
- Additionally, if there are specific choices or decisions you know you want help with or don’t want help with, you can write them in the space at the bottom of each area.
- In Part 3 (“Access to Information”), mark “Yes” or “No” to say whether you want your Supporter to see your private information to help you make your own decisions.
- If the SDMA covers health care decisions, you should sign a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) release of information form, which allows doctors and other health care providers to share private medical information about you with your formal supporter, and then attach the signed HIPAA form to the SDMA.
- If the SDMA covers educational decisions, you should sign a Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) release of information form, which allows schools to share private educational information about you with your formal supporter, and then attach the signed FERPA form to the SDMA.
- Check the box next to “Yes”
- When you fill out and sign release‐of‐information forms, be specific about who can share private information about you, what kind of information they can share, and who can get the information.
- In Part 5 (“Information Sharing”), circle “Yes” or “No” to say whether or not you want your Supporter to be able to share information or records with another supporter. If you want your formal supporter to be able to talk to another supporter, write the other supporter’s name and the type of information or records you want your Supporter to share on the blank lines.
Circle “Yes” or “No” if you want your Supporter to be able to share information or records with another person who is not a supporter. If you want your Supporter to be able undesignederson, write the person’s name and the type of information of records you want your supporter to share on the blank lines.
- In Part 6 (“Conflict of Interest”), circle “Yes” or “No” for what you want to happen if your Supporter has a family, friend, or financial relationship that could make it hard for them to help you make the best decision for you. You can also choose another way by writing it on the blank line.
- In Part 7 (“Legal Decision Maker”), if the SDMA covers an area in which another person can legally make a decision for you, write how many days you will tell them before a discussion about that area. Also, circle “Yes” or “No” to show how you will invite them to be part of the conversation.
- Part 8 (“Effective Date and Rights”) says when the SDMA starts and ends. It usually starts the day you sign it, unless you say differently in the agreement. You must also mark a box for when you want the SDMA to stop. An SDMA also stops if you sign a legal document letting another person make decisions for you. Finally, a judge can change or stop an SDMA.
In order to use an SDMA, you must be able to pick “Yes” before each statement to show that you understand the SDMA and your rights.
- In Part 9 (“Supporter Responsibilities”), your Supporter enters their name and describes what their relationship is to you. Your Supporter then answers a list of questions by circling or marking “Yes” or “No.” In order to be your legal Supporter under the SDMA, your Supporter must be able to pick “Yes” for each statement to show they qualify to be your Supporter under the law and know their role and responsibility to you.
- In Part 10 (“Signatures”), you, your supporter, and any person who can legally make decisions for you (if required) sign the SDMA form in writing or electronically in front of 2 adult witnesses (people other than you and your supporter).
If you do not have 2 adult witnesses to sign the form with you and your supporter, you must have a notary public sign and put their notary seal on the document.
Finally, you can, but do not have to, list another person you want to help you make a decision if your Supporter cannot or is not available soon enough.
I Have an SDMA. What Should I Do Now?
You should keep the original SDMA in a safe place and give a copy of it to your formal supporter. You should share copies of the SDMA with other people and organizations that need to know about it. For example, if your supporter helps you make your own medical decisions, you should give a copy of the agreement to your doctors, nearby hospitals, and other health care providers to let them know that you have an SDMA with a named supporter who helps you with medical decisions. If you have an attorney or advocate, you might want them to have a copy, too. You do not need to submit your SDMA to a court for approval.
How Do I Change or Cancel an SDMA?
You or your formal supporter may cancel your SDMA at any time. It is a good idea to put your cancellation in writing, so that you and other people have proof that the SDMA really is cancelled. You or your formal supporter would share the cancellation with each other and with anybody else who knew about the SDMA or had a copy of the SDMA. That way, other people and organizations will know to stop following the SDMA and sharing private information about you with people who are no longer your supporters.
You may change an SDMA by cancelling it and making a new one that lets others know your wishes have changed. You may also sign new release‐of‐information forms to let other supporters get information about you to help you make your own decisions.
What if I Am Having Problems Using an SDMA?
The law says other people ‐ such as those at medical offices, hospitals, banks, and other businesses ‐ and government agencies who receive an SDMA must usually respect it. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, if people have a reason to believe that you are being or have been abused, neglected, or exploited, they may not honor your SDMA, and they are required to report the situation to Adult Protective Services.
The law creating the SDMA in Utah is new, and so you may want help in making or cancelling an SDMA. You also may need help to make sure other people know about the new law and respect your SDMA. If you want to ask for this kind of advocacy, you can contact the Disability Law Center at 800-662-9080 or complete our application for referral.
Looking for the template? Create a Supported Decision-Making Agreement