elements of person centered planning

Key Elements of Person Centred Planning

“As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.”

Toni Morrison

Aaron Johannes, Director

aaron@spectrumsociety#imagineacircle#101friendsBC

Foundational Theory

Ursus Wehrli “Tidied Up Matisse”

TED “Ursus Wehrli: Tidying up art”

Key elements

• Leadership of the person

• A foundational theory• Dreaming• Deep listening • Inviting

interdependence• Planning

implementation

A lot can go wrong with Person Centred Planning

“That workshop was so inspiring – I completed person centered plans my 27 clients last week!”

Leadership: “person led” –Looking at the research

While experience of leadership is one of 5 qualities that predict adult success; • Only 12% of kids at IEPS take a leadership role• Of about 1200 resource teachers not one could think of

an example of a child with special needs in a leadership position at a club, sports team or student government

• Leadership is “perhaps the least explored and understood aspect of self-determination among individuals with disabilities”

Erik W. Carter, Beth Swedeen, Martha J. Walter, Colleen K. Moss and Ching-Ting Hsin. "Perspectives of Young Adults With Disabilities on Leadership." Career Development for Exceptional Individuals 34.57 (2011). Print.

But when it works… Tiffany and pic-syms

But when it works…growing mastery over planning

• At Tiffany’s third PATH she had come to understand the process– She had ideas to share– She wanted to lead the

meeting about her life– She figured out how to

allow us to help her while staying clear that this belonged to her

But when it works… growing mastery over planning. She wanted:

• Grow my business• Spend more time with my

brother• Save money to go to Disneyland

again• Learn to plug in my own

vacuum• Show my communication

system to friends at my gym • Have pot luck dinners with my

family • Try out a different church (that

my step-brother likes)

Marvin goes to England

• One day holidays• 3 days• Further distances• Different people• ….• No progress• …. • Plan for England

• See Buckingham Palace• Meet family• Meet the queen

• “I can balance seven beer cans on my head just like my cousins”

• “I hardly saw him”

X is blind and deaf, has an intellectual disability, and was assisted in planning by 20+ people including former teachers, birth family, former and current

foster parents, grandparents, friends from school…

Where else will people discuss which of his five favourite car washes does he like best?

Cheryl: the winwalked in feeling alone and vulnerable

A lens for person centred planning: Supporting and building on interdependence

"Person centred planning grew out of a passionate

concern to support people with developmental

disabilities in discovering and contributing their

gifts." Connie Lyle O'Brien and

John O'Brien

"Person centred planning grew out of a passionate

concern to support people with developmental

disabilities in discovering and contributing their

gifts." Connie Lyle O'Brien and

John O'Brien

There is always a theory: Our Foundational Theory

We broke it down with familiesand self advocates…

While the biggest question was how do we make sure we cover this – that’s not the best question…

We found: • Schedules for when planning

will happen– “It’s Person Centred

planning Day!” • Forms to be used on the spot

(spontaneity!) that came out in triplicate

• Unscheduled monitoring visits• Many tracking forms • Wonderful databases• The people organizing the

tracking systems were not the people at the planning events

From a great presentation by Keenan Weller on slideshare

What was monitored was often still the result of a needs-based approach

• One of our friends says that at her program person centred planning was really about “which window do you want to look out of?”

• She wanted a job. Their response was, “But you have a disability – which window did you choose?”

• She started an employment agency with some self advocate friends

This thinking manifests in teacher notes and staff log books

More than 100 notes in grade 3 binder;not one positive comment

• When we pointed this out to them, they were as surprised (and horrified) as we were

• We need to commit to thinking differently

• We need to be suspicious of a system that forces us to think of deficits as points to count towards supports that are needed

Out of 20+ kids he was the only one who showed up having written a new chapter for the script, spent all

the breaks with the camera-persons and sound crew…

Hoping for less of…

“Well that (12 years of education) was just bizarre.”

Not educated in what interested her;Not taught in the ways that she

learned best.

We need to rethink this mythology of introduction as community after a half century

Community = social presencecommunity = connection

giftedness

Where do you contribute? Where would you be missed? Where are you needed?

Supporting and building on interdependence. Our gifts are how we connect.

"Person centred planning grew out of a passionate

concern to support people with developmental

disabilities in discovering and contributing their

gifts." Connie Lyle O'Brien and

John O'Brien

"Person centred planning grew out of a passionate

concern to support people with developmental

disabilities in discovering and contributing their

gifts." Connie Lyle O'Brien and

John O'Brien

Before a planning meeting, a staff person sent me this. This was his experience of planning in his family. We can’t proceed

without healing everyone involved.

But we can rewrite the scripts…

CLBC Safeguards publications

• Often people are surrounded by really great services, that preclude connection

• Often the people who might connect them don’t know how – as individuals and as agencies…

We are not alone in any of this. Graphic by Allison Crow Flanigan of a session with Rich Litvin that has

nothing to do with disability.

• Teaching support staff to step back

• Teaching parents to “wait”

• Teaching agency and school leaders about vulnerabilities and risk

• Teaching invitation “one person at a time”

Learning invitation: “Can I ask you to help me think this through for half an hour over coffee?”

• 100% success for families

• Not “do respite for the weekend”• “take over when I die”• “tube feed my child without any training”

Learning invitation: a script

3 rooms of 30• Daughter, 35• Mom and Dad

verging on retirement

• Mom had created a “circle of friends” for her daughter as a child

• Had a PLAN facilitator who developed a network

• Had a group of family, friends, staff*

• Daughter• Mom and

step-dad• Step - dad

took the dog for a walk…

• Two sons and daughter, 6 – 12

• Single mom had no local family

• Neighbours• School

contacts• Family • Past workers• Friends from

work

www.communityworks.infoDavid Wetherow

Inviting in people to leverage our networks: here’s why you want to know us

A method: PATH Inclusion.com books and materials

Looking at good planners:planning for connection

Meaghen Taylor-ReidRegional Employment CoordinatorCommunity Living BC (CLBC)Simon Fraser Region, Port Moody Office

"I maintain we've just gotta get out of the way! And be involved in different ways - all about connection…. I'm honoured to cheer."

Looking at good planners:planning for independence

Shelley Nessman,Consultant, Strategic Initiatives, Spectrum Consulting

“We need to develop tracks that young people will be able to follow in the rest of their lives to make partnership possible. To ask the question they need answered the most, ‘How do we do this together? How will I do it more independently when I am on my own?’”

Looking at good planners:assuming a soft touch

Linda Perry, E.D., Vela Microboard Society

“If we are doing our work well, we’ll be listening deeply to the stories people tell us – and those are never stories that end when we arrive – they are always stories about where people might go. And then we can enter into conversations about what might happen, with a soft touch, just focusing on what they might need from us.”

Planning for implementation

• ‘the plan is not the outcome’ – Helen Sanderson, 2003

• Accountability partners– Grandmas forget least

often and have the best answers…

• Leadership– Top down – (Invite the accountants)

New directions – there are exciting new developments in person centered planning…

Key elements

• Leadership of the person• A foundational theory• Dreaming• Deep listening • Inviting interdependence• Planning implementation

Please contact uswww.101friends.ca

www.imagineacircle.com

aaron@spectrumsociety.org