Person Centered Thinking

“Person-Centered Planning” means a process for planning and supporting the individualreceiving services that build upon the individual’s capacity to engage in activities that promote community life and that honor the individual’s preferences, choices, and abilities. The Person-Centered Planning process involves families, friends, and professionals as the individual desires or requires.

Use of a Person-Centered Planning Process in the development of the plan of care is acontract requirement for MI Choice Waiver agents when planning and arranging home& community-based long-term care services to individuals eligible for nursing facilitycare due to needs associated with aging or disabilities.

The application of the principlesand methods that define person-centered planning are essential to MI Choice Waiverprogram beneficiaries. The Department of Community Health (DCH) considers accessto authentic person-centered planning to be an essential ingredient of long-term carereform.

Further and most importantly, access to an authentic person-centered planningprocess is considered a central consumer right during their participation in the MIChoice Waiver program.

The supports coordinator, who is employed by the waiver agent to assess, plan andauthorize the provision of waiver services to the participant, is responsible forsupporting the participant and finalizing the care plan.

The care plan is based on theexpressed preferences and desires of the individual. The individual’s choices drive anongoing process of setting goals (such as where to live, what to do and how to spendthe day, and how to connect with others,) making plans, selecting supports andservices, evaluating progress and outcomes, and revising or setting new goals.

Traditional Supports Planning Person Centered Planning

Decisions are to be made by “consensus” of a planning team that typically consists of staff and professionals; and decisions are driven by medical needs.

The person drives decisions and invites people who s/he feels have important contributions to make; often including family, friends, community members and trusted allies from the service system.

Focus of planning is primarily defined by a menu of service options that are offered under the Waiver or other programs. Natural (informal) supports are sometimes used to augment programmatic supports.

Focus of planning is defined by the desired outcomes of the person. Programmatic supports are used to augment informal supports.

Traditional Supports Planning Person Centered Planning

The conception of ‘planning’ is that it occurs periodically during meetings or isolated problem solving events.

Planning occurs as a process that evolves over time. It is reoccurring as the person’s circumstances change.

Traditional Supports Planning Person Centered Planning

Attention is focused on problems and “fixing”.

Attention is focused on strengths and “fostering”.

Traditional Supports Planning Person Centered Planning

Carl Rogers Original Theory & Practice (1957) •A paradigm shift that focuses on the human being as a person and on the art of encounter. •Shifting away from “expert practitioner-orientation” - what we do “WITH” our clients rather than what we do “TO” our clients. •It is a relational process; meaning it is HOW we do our work, rather than WHAT our work consists of.

Person-Centered & Relationship A Philosophy of Living and Relationships The person-centered approach, then, is primarily a way of being that finds its expression in attitudes and behaviors that create a growth-promoting climate.

It is a basic philosophy rather than simply a technique or method. When this philosophy is lived, it helps the person expand the development of his or her own capacities. When it is lived, it also stimulates constructive change in others.

History of Person-Centered Planning in MichiganThe movement toward person-centered planning (PCP) has been growing in Michiganfor the past three decades. Originally, it was developed as a method for working withpersons with developmental disabilities to identify their dreams, goals, and desires.

As the concept was introduced in Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, theindependent living philosophy was incorporated into the person-centered planningprocess.

Relationship is the Key

Relationship is the Agent of Change in the Social Model

AND IT STARTS WITH

YOU!

Perspective Transformation When you fix, you see someone as broken, and when you help, you see someone as weak. When you serve, though, you see someone as whole. Serving is more likely to create a relationship of equals rather than one of hierarchy.

Foster Relationships with Unconditional Positive Regard

To foster means to encourage and promote the development of relationships with a quality of unconditional positive regard.

Foster Relationships with Unconditional Positive Regard:

• Sustain Healthy Boundaries• Act with 100% Responsibility• Make Requests• Carry out Agreements• Express Gratitude

Boundary Regulation

100% Responsibility

Responsibility is an action you take, rather than a thing or a point on a graph. You consciously move from blame or burden to ownership. No matter what the situation, you WONDER, “What might this have to do with me?”

Making Requests

Shaping the Future Through Committed Speaking An effective request requires a speaker, a listener, mutually understood criteria for fulfilling a request, a time agreement and a committed response.

Agreements

Anything you have said you would do, or anything you have said you would not do.

Express Gratitude

Words Create Worlds

• Be aware of your thoughts; they become words. • Be aware of your words; they become actions. • Be aware of yours actions; they become habits. • Be aware of your habits; they become your

character. • Be aware of your character; it becomes your

destiny. • Frank Outlaw

A value is a preference as well as a conception of something that is personally or socially preferable.

Values and PrinciplesPractices implemented by Waiver agents that purport to achieve person centeredplanning must be based on the following values and principles:

· Person-centered planning is an individualized process designed torespond to the preferences and desires of the individual.

· Each individual has strengths and the ability to express preferencesand make choices.

· The individual’s choices and preferences shall always be honoredand considered.

· Each individual can contribute to the community, and has the abilityto choose how supports and services may help them meaningfullyparticipate in and contribute to the community.

· Person-centered planning processes maximize independence, createcommunity connections, and work towards achieving theindividual’s dreams, goals, and desires.

· A person’s cultural background shall be recognized and valued in theplanning process.

Essential Elements

Person-centered planningmust include evidence that the following are included:

1.Person-Directed. The individual controls the planning process.

2. Capacity Building. Planning focuses on an individual’s gifts, abilities, talents,and skills rather than deficits.

3. Person-Centered. The focus is continually on the individual with whom theplan is being developed and not on fitting the person into available services andsupports in a standard program.

4. Outcome-Based. The plan focuses on increasing the experiences identified asvaluable by the individual during the planning process.

5. Presumed Competence. All individuals are presumed to have the capacity toactively participate in the planning process.

6. Information and Guidance. The PCP process must address the individual’sneed for information, guidance, and support.

7. Participation of Allies. For most individuals, person-centered planningrelies on the participation of allies chosen by the individual, based on whom theyfeel is important to be there to support them.

8. Health and Welfare. The PCP process addresses the health and welfare needsof the individual, as well as strategies identified by the individual to maintainhis/her life in the community setting of his/her choice..

9. Documentation. The planning results should be documented in ways thatare meaningful to the individual and useful to people with responsibilities forimplementing the plan.

. In the last ten years, individuals with developmentaldisabilities and/or mental illness have used this process to pursue their goals to live,work, and be involved in the community with the support they need and want.

The philosophy of person-centered planning has been embraced statewide as themethod for individuals who need long-term care to plan for supports and services toenable them to maintain their lives in their homes, neighborhoods and community, andto maintain or obtain connections with other community members.

Thank You for your Participation!

For more information please contact: The Office of Services to the Aging