Person-Centered Planning - Why Now
Historically, the service system for people with psychiatric
diagnoses has been provided in segregated settings. Many
models have developed from the best of intentions on the
part of designers; however, the outcome has been segregated
services. The institutional model provides for all aspects
of a person's life including food, clothing, shelter, health,
mental health, spirituality, and recreation. The best of
total institutions offered "asylum" from the whole
world, creating safety for the individual as well as society.
People never had to leave the setting.
As services progressed into the community, they still carried
the legacy of institutional isolation and separation from
the total community. Funding requirements and regulatory
constraints contribute to the fact that community-based
services often are delivered to people with psychiatric
disabilities in large groups that exclude other citizens.
A segregated service system continues today as we have vans
transporting only people with disabilities, recreational
clubs (psychosocial clubs), day treatment programs, residential
services that are located in the community, but very separate
from the community itself.
Staff roles continue to be exclusive of personal relationships;
they aren't geared to help people develop friendships and
other unpaid relationships that can remain involved with
the person for an indefinite time. In many cases, because
of funding constraints and public policy guidelines, service
provider roles have been constructed to either maintain
people in the system or complete tasks with the person until
they leave the system.
Person-centered planning is designed to offer people supports
to be fully involved and fully included in communities of
their choice with supports that focus on total inclusion.
--- Carole Hayes Collier.
Click the following links to review the Hallmarks
of Person-Centered Practices or the Foundations
of Person-Centeredness curriculum that is now being
offered by the WNYCCP.
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