PERSON CENTERED THINKING AND PLANNING
Community Living Temiskaming South believes that everyone has the right to make their own choices and live a life of their choosing. As such, we are dedicated to using a Person-Centred approach to better support the individuals who access our programs and services.
Funding available through the Canadian Ontario Job Grant enabled us to receive training through Helen Sanderson Associates to integrate a Person-Centred approach in our agency and apply these tools to empower individuals with developmental delays and support them in making their own life choices. Using Person-Centred tools ensures that the person supported is truly listened to and is a key player in making their own decisions. Furthermore, it allows us to identify what is important to and important for the individual, which enables us to support them in a way that respects their choices while also recognizing their specific needs.
Person-Centred thinking is a set of tools that is founded in the principles of rights, independence, choice and inclusion. These tools are used collaboratively with the individual, their loved ones and their support staff to identify ways to better support them. Some of the tools we use include:
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One-Page Profiles: Helps you to get to better know a person. It focuses on what matters to the person and how to support them.
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Learning Logs: Enables you to reflect on activities, events or life situations to identify what worked well, what didn’t and what was learned as a result.
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4+1 Questions: Used collaboratively to gather a team’s collective learning and help them identify next steps. Questions include: What have you tried? What have you learned? What are you pleased about? What are you concerns about? And, What will you do next?
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What’s Working / Not Working: Encourages you to think through a situation and capture what is working / not working from different perspectives.
Person-Centred Plans ensures that goals and subsequent actions plans are developed with the individual supported and not for them. It is an interactive process that starts with a laid-back meeting with the individual, their family, friends, and support staff.
During the meeting, everyone discusses what they like and admire about the individual, what is important to them, what is important for them, and what goals they would like to achieve. Based on these discussions, a plan is created to ensure all parties are accountable in taking the steps needed to support the individual in reaching the goals they have set out for themselves.
