Organization-Wide PCP

Introduction

Person-centered planning is a strategy that brings a team together to celebrate the strengths of a person, listen closely to the person’s interests and aspirations, and help this person achieve a meaningful and fulfilling life. There are a number of different models for facilitating person-centered plans (click here to learn more about person-centered planning models). Sometimes it can be difficult to find someone nearby who can facilitate person-centered planning. To address this need, people interested in learning about person-centered planning will often get started by attending a one or two-day workshop. Attending a training can be inspiring but without more coaching support it can be challenging to implement person-centered planning. There are different reasons why it is hard to start facilitating person-centered planning after attending a training. We might forget the steps involved or run into a problem that wasn’t discussed during the training. Other people who are not familiar with the approach may not understand how to be helpful during planning meetings. Organizational policies within an organization can make it harder for someone learning person-centered planning to use this approach in their job. For this reason, relying only on workshops to teach person-centered planning is called a “train and hope model”.  We schedule a training and hope this experience will result in changes in our efforts to support people.

Research shows us that there are better ways to implement person-centered planning or any type of positive support practice using what is referred to as implementation science (click here to learn more about the National Implementation Research Network). These systems-change strategies include forming an organization-wide team that will:

• Change policies and procedures to support person-centered strategies,
• Improve communication,
• Set up ongoing coaching and mentoring supports,
• Embed person-centered strategies into staff training systems,
• Change job hiring and recruitment strategies,
• Build capacity for internal organizational trainers, and
• Use data-based decision making to inform the team process.

The strategies listed here are part of a process called organization-wide person-centered practices. Person-centered practices are used by organizations to provide a continuum of strategies that are person-centered. The strategies used do not rely on person-centered planning as the only way to improve the quality of life of people who are receiving supports. The goal of the organization-wide team is to create universal strategies that can help all people, monitor progress and intervene early when quality of life is not improving, and to use person-centered planning for people who need a more individualized and intensive level of support. Person-centered practices are organized by a three-tiered model for improving quality of life across tiers 1, 2, and 3.

Three-Tiered Continuum of Supports 

Tier 1 includes tools, strategies, and systems that are used to support everyone within an organization. An important goal is to increase awareness of person-centered values and to interact with people in a more person-centered manner. People learn how to encourage active discovery and exploration as a way to learn more about others. It is important to know what is important to and for each person within a setting. Universal strategies help us to discover what brings joy and makes life worth living (important to) for a person and those issues that are important for maintaining health, wellness, and safety (important for). People receiving support, staff members, managers and directors, family members and community partners are involved in universal strategies. Universal person-centered skills or strategies help improve communication and build better relationships:

• With staff who support people,
• Between supervisors and staff, and
• In any interactions between two or more people.

An example of a universal strategy includes a set of tools that are called Person-Centered Thinking from The Learning Community for Person-Centered Practices. These tools are used to provide opportunities for creating positive interactions and exploring what works for people and what doesn’t work. Other universal strategies focus on increasing mental health and wellness. Improving mental and physical health can be helpful for people who receive support, employees within an organization, and family members (learn more by visiting the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). Another universal strategy the team may address is to systematically increase collaboration with people across a community to build relationships with people who are receiving support, help establish new opportunities for employment, and improve the natural supports available to people.

Tier 2 is used to monitor quality of life to make sure that each person can achieve his or her personal desires and goals. Creating ways to monitor quality of life outcomes and acting as soon as possible when there are signs that improvements are needed are part of secondary strategies. Examples of these secondary strategies include social and community-based learning opportunities, problem solving when a person’s home life is not ideal, or supporting people who are exploring new hobbies or community events.

Tier 3 includes individualized and more intensive planning. The goal is to build capacity within a community in order to make sure person-centered planning is available to anyone who wants a person-centered plan.  Person-centered planning involves bringing a team together to celebrate the strengths of a person and build actions that helps the person build the life they want. The person guides their team themself and together everyone works to solve problems, create action plans, schedule regular meetings, review progress, and celebrate successes over time. Since each person is different, other positive support strategies are identified during person-centered planning. Trauma-informed care, applied behavior analysis, and positive behavior support are all examples of practices that might be integrated with person-centered planning. These positive supports help a person build social and emotional skills and improve quality of life (click here for more information about defining the term positive support).

Organization-Wide Person-Centered Practices

Organizations interested in person-centered practices avoid the “train and hope” approach by forming a team to take a lead role in the systems change process. Teams should represent the experience and wisdom of multiple viewpoints of the people who will be part of the change process. Together, the team shares responsibility for leadership and decision making. Examples of team members include:

• People receiving support,
• Family members and/or guardians,
• Staff representing the different areas of the organization,
• Directors/executives, leaders,
• Management,
• Front line supervisors,
• Direct support staff,
• Advocates, and
• Community members.

Every team member is important. The first step for a team is to assesses the strengths of the organization. This information is used to develop an action plan for moving forward. Teams use a self-assessment process to clearly articulate a person-centered vision and connect it to organizational mission and vision statements. Sometimes changes are made to the original organizational mission to better align values. Administrative leadership and support on the team is a key element that predicts success. Since everyone is involved in person-centered practices, the team works hard to involve everyone in assessment and action planning. The assessment process leads the team to implement the following types of strategies:

• Modifying or adding policies and procedures,
• Integrating person-centered strategies into onboarding and ongoing training systems,
• Changing hiring processes,
• Adding coaching and mentoring systems to support staff learning new skills, and
• Including data-based decision making to assess how well person-centered practices are implemented.

Organization-wide person-centered practices are currently being implemented in Minnesota. Click below for examples of implementation that can occur within an organization.

Other Examples of Implementation From Different Organizations

Person-Centered Practices in:

• Mental Health
• Residential Provider Organization
• Public Health
• County