Currents Trends in Supporting People with IDD and their families
Here’s a curated roundup of the most current articles, research, and websites on supporting people with IDD and their families.
Person Centered Thinking
7 Questions that Those Who Support People with Disabilities Should Be Able to Answer
Those who support and those who develop plans with people who have disabilities should be able to answer the following 7 questions. The plans that are written with people who use disability services should contain these answers. The services and supports provided should reflect the answers to these questions.
LGBTQ+ Adults with Intellectual Disabilities Need Supportive Caregivers
Adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) are often victims of discrimination simply because they have a disability. People with ID who identify as LGBTQ+ face further bullying and harassment simply because of whom they choose to love or how they express their identity. Read the complete article by Margaret Walsh here.
Supporting People with Severe Reputations in the Community
While written over thirty years ago this piece, by Michael Smull and Susan Burke Harrison, is a classic and one of the first pieces written about person-centered planning and thinking in action. It deserves a read or reread. The handbook presents the tools needed to develop better community capacity to support people with “severe reputations.’ … Read more
Helping people find a balance: the role of the facilitator or being right is not enough
by Michael Smull As we help people learn to do person centered planning with people with disabilities, repeatedly those who do the training are asked what to do when what the person appears to want conflicts with what a parent or guardian wants. As people learn to do plans they also ask what they should … Read more
“4 Ways That ‘Our Minds Are Fine’ Is Ableist Toward Cognitively Disabled Folks”
A description and link to an article by Cara Liebowitz on identity first and people first language has been viewed on this site hundreds of times (find the link here). She recently wrote a follow-up article on the views of ableist views of some individuals with physical disabilities. Below is. a summary and link to … Read more
Person-centered planning and perversion prevention
Person-centered planning, in all of its forms, is moving from something done by a few enthusiasts to an activity that is being widely adopted and adapted. As it leaves the caring hands of the pioneers there are concerns for how it will be used. Our experience suggests that abuses generally arise from a lack of … Read more
Listen to Me! (fillable pdf version)
Download Listen to Me! here (Spanish version download here). LTM was developed at a time when Essential Lifestyle Planning (ELP) was one of the gold standards of person-centered planning. While it still sets a high standard, since that time, many other methods of planning with individuals for the lives they want to lead have been … Read more
Third Places And Community Connectors
In his book The Great Good Place, Oldenburg writes about what he refers to as “Third Places,” those places in every community where locals gather to visit, share news and be among others. Such places are a great spot to meet the neighborhood “connectors” (those people who know everyone else) and to assist someone to … Read more
After The Plan
Written by Michael W. Smull in 1995, this article outlines the importance of updating a person centered plan after it’s written. The original article can be downloaded here. A summary checklist based on the article can be downloaded here. Learning how people want to live and then doing nothing with the information is a form … Read more