Over 1 million website views since 1996 – Resources for Supporting Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
An easy to use transition guide we built back in the 1994. It may be old, but it’s still used here and there. It includes a summary plan as well. What’s this all about? Your answers to these questions can help you put together a transition plan. A plan to help you reach the best … Read more
If you have been referred to a regional center in California — or if you are a family member supporting someone who has — you may have heard the words “assessment” or “evaluation” and wondered – what does that actually mean? What are they looking at? And what happens with the results? You can find … Read more
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
Person centered planning is learning how people want to live, about what is important to someone in everyday life and discovering someone might want to live in the future. However, as Michael Smull has said, “a plan is not an outcome.” And as Helen Sanderson has said “Outcomes describe the specific things that the person … Read more
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
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
A California Regional Center service coordinator helps people with developmental disabilities and their families get the services and supports they need. Service coordinators wear many hats! They meet with the person and family, write and update the person’s individual plan, find and arrange services and supports (like education and training, job supports, housing), check that … Read more
Summary: Service coordinators can be strong, practical advocates — inside the regional center and across systems — by using the IPP process, documenting needs, coordinating assessments and services, negotiating with vendors/schools/health plans, and connecting families with legal/advocacy resources when needed. Below are specific actions they can take, limits to their authority, a simple step-by-step checklist families can use, and sample … Read more
Person-centered planning is not one defined process, but a range or continuum of processes allunderpinned by the same values base and goal – to provide supports necessary to assist people to gainagency in their lives. – Valerie Bradley Here’s an excerpt from this excellent NCAPPS article. You can find it here. “Over the past several … Read more
Although written in 1993, this piece still contains great stories of supported living in California. You can download it here. PrefaceAt one point in completing this work, we were overwhelmed by how it could easily go wrong. That is, we could just paint a picture called Supported Living and hope for the best as people … Read more