Achieving a Better Quality of Life through Person Centered Planning

A woman smiles while wearing a yellow shirt and a brown vest.

Have you heard about Person-centered planning?

During the times of deinstitutionalization in the 1970’s, a group of passionate advocates who supported people with disabilities started to consider quality of life. Eventually the ideas spread creating a large community of advocates who used person centered practices as a way to learn more about people’s choices, interests and dreams, and how to identify what was needed to achieve that life.

The Person Centered Planning process starts with gathering a team

The Person-Centered Planning process starts with gathering a team of people who the person using supports (sometimes referred to as the focus person) chooses to participate. This may include paid or unpaid individuals including family members, legal guardians, friends, support staff, case managers or anyone who is involved in the person’s day-today life. The focus person should be as involved as possible in inviting members to the team, even if they have a legal guardian. Once the team members have been determined, it should be understood that all participants are equal partners. It’s important to notify the team that a Person Centered Plan is not done to someone or for someone. Although it may be facilitated by others, the process is intended to be done with the focus person who should direct the process.

Focus on positive information about the focus person

Rather than emphasizing their diagnosis or deficits, a Person Centered Plan should begin with positive information about the focus person. A good starting point is determining what characteristics others like and admire about them. Be alert that often, team participants will list disability-related skills the person uses, like independently getting dressed as opposed to actual characteristics, like being funny or having a great fashion sense. It’s also a good idea to consider how the focus person contributes to the community around them, whether it be within their household or in their larger community.

Typical team meetings for people with disabilities tend to focus greatly upon things that are important for the person, in terms of health and safety. According to the Learning Community for Person Centered Practices there should be equal emphasis on what’s important to the person – things that make the person happy and how they choose to spend their time. Considering both things that are important to and for a person helps to achieve a balance in their life. For example, it may be very important for a person with medical issues to avoid unhealthy foods, but it may be very important to them to spend time with friends which go out for the “forbidden” foods. The team needs to work with the person to figure out a balance between what’s important to them (spending time with friends) and what’s important for their health (avoiding unhealthy foods) in order to honor their choices and give them some positive control of their life. Getting to know what is important to a person, while critical, can be challenging. Sometimes people have a difficult time answering broad, general questions like “what is important to you?” It can be helpful to have conversations about specific things like “what does a good day and a bad day look like for you?” or “what is something about your life that is working really well or not working for you at all?” These conversations can help the team learn essential information about the person.

Person-Centered Planning meetings can also gather information on how the person would like to be supported from others around them. For example, what are the personality traits of paid staff with whom the person gets along well? What are the traits of those whom they don’t seem to click with? Documenting that information in a plan is helpful so that when hiring new support staff or arranging schedules the focus person will have an opportunity to spend time with someone who they appreciate.

The plan is a fluid

The plan is a fluid document and not something that a person should feel locked into. After the plan is written, it should be reviewed on a regular basis, typically quarterly. If something about the plan is not working, or new needs arise, the plan should be updated to reflect current needs. All people have changing needs, and advocacy for the right supports is a continual process.

Person Centered Planning cannot be rushed. It may take several team meetings to gather the information that the focus person would like to include in their plan. Nonprofessionals, like family members or friends may defer to professionals who they believe know more or have the power to make decisions. But everyone should feel confident and empowered to voice concerns and advocate for the things that are truly important to the focus person and to ensure that they have everything they need according to their wishes and preferences.

If the team decides that it would be helpful, the information from the plan may be condensed into a one-page description to provide at-a glance information in a short format. Typical one-page descriptions include at least this information:

What do others like and admire about the person?
What is important TO them?
What are the best ways to support them?

Although a one-page description should never take the place of a longer plan, it can provide some important information that may easily be shared.

Everyone benefits when their choices, routines and dreams are honored. When done correctly, a Person Centered Plan can help someone move forward toward the life they truly want.

For more information about Person Centered Planning, check out these resources.

O’Brien, C.L. & O’Brien, J. The Origins of Person-Centered Planning: A Community of Practice Perspective https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED456599.pdf

The Learning Community for Person-Centered Practices: https://tlcpcp.com/

Administration on Community Living: https://acl.gov/programs/consumer-control/person-centered-planning

Five Competency Domains for Staff who facilitate Person Centered Planning: https://ncapps.acl.gov/docs/NCAPPS_StaffCompetencyDomains_201028_final.pdf

I’m Determined Project:https://imdetermined.org/

Student Involvement in the IEP Process: https://www.imdetermined.org/resource/student-involvement-in-the-iep-modules/

About the authors:

Molly Dellinger-Wray is part of the Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University, a university center for excellence in developmental disabilities. She is also the mom of two fabulous adult children, one of whom benefitted from special education and early intervention. She has been a certified Person Centered teaching trainer since 2011.

Jenn Kurtz has thirty years of experience in human service in Virginia. In addition to her role as a mom, she has been a Person-Centered Mentor Trainer for the past 9 years.

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2023 Magazine