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Essential Lifestyle Planning

• The following pages are a collection of easy to use exercises that will help you to help others get to know your family member. Please follow the instructions on each page to write down the information that will help develop a plan for supports .

• The person that you're planning with is the most important person to listen to. Most professional plans have been done "for" the person. You are striving to plan "with" the person.

• Thank you in advance for taking the time to help us get to know your family member better.

06/04/12 www.learningcommunity.us

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Relationship Map:

Learning who to talk to and thinking about what your family member values in others?

The easiest way to learn who to talk to is to do a simple relationship map with the person. On the following page, you will find one to complete with your family member. You will notice that the circle is divided into four parts:

– Family - people who are related to the person

– Home and supports - paid or unpaid people, who are not family, who provide support at home or in the community

– Friends - people that the person sees as friends (who are not listed under home or in the community)

– Work/School - paid or unpaid people who provide support wherever the person spends his or her days

At the center of the circle, write the person’s name. In the next circle write the names of those people closest to the person. Remember that these may or may not include those who spend the most time with the person, they are the people that the person feels closest to (those whom the person loves; good friends). Put those people who the person feels somewhat less close to in the next circle (friends, people the person cares about). On the outside put those people who are acquaintances, or relatives that the person does not feel close to. Paid staff may be in any of these circles. Ask how the person feels about them.

Please note that although some people have multiple roles (e.g. they are friends and are paid to provide support) they should only be listed once. The purpose of the map is to have a quick way of looking at relationships and to help you with who you should talk to (who should contribute to the plan) and to start getting ideas about what types of people the person likes to be around.

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____

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Great things about your family memberWhat are some great things about your family member? What do people like or admire about him or her? What are some things he or she is good at? proud of? What are some nice things that people say about them? These are important things to think about when you are figuring out the kinds of supports and services they might need. Ask these questions of people that have demonstrated they really care about your family member.

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What things do you know he or she likes to do?To help you get started, you might ask your son or daughter and the people who know him or her best: What things does he or she like to do? at home? at work? at program? At college? for fun? around town? on vacation? What kind of music does he or she like? What kind of movies? What kind of food? How about hobbies?

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What things do you know that he or she dislikes?What are things that you know bug this person? Where he or she lives? Where he or she spends time during the day? For fun? Around town? On vacation? At home? At school?

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What makes a perfect day for your family member from the time he/she gets up until bedtime? What makes a not so perfect day? Who is in it? What happens when everything goes right? What happens when everything goes wrong?

A great weekday would be A bad weekday would be

His/her week day

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What makes a perfect weekend day for your family member from the time he/she gets up until bedtime? What makes a not so perfect day? Who is in it? What happens when everything goes right? What happens when everything goes wrong?

A great weekend day would be A bad weekend day would be

His/her weekend day

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Positive RitualsDoes your family member have any specific things that need to be done in the morning, after work, before bedtime? Are certain holiday activities important to him/her? Other rituals?

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Hopes Fears

If you had the unlimited power, authority and money, describe how you would use it to create the best life possible. Also, what are the things you most fear that get in the way of the life you want?

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Things to Figure OutMany families have found that keeping a “running list” of any questions that come to mind (while you are developing the plan) is very helpful. Using the space below is one way to keep track. Some of the most common ways for people to use this list are; as a reminder list (e.g. Don’t forget to ask ... ), as a place to write down things that you don’t understand, where you need more information, and as a place to note things that you are struggling with, where you may have written something but you are not satisfied