Person Centered Planning (*Long Post Alert*)

Morning, last night I attended a talk in Saint John of God Carmona on PCP or Person Centered Planning. The speaker was Ray Murray (Research Associate, National Institute for Intellectual Disability, Trinity College and Disability Consultant) who himself has a granddaughter with an intellectual disability.

There was a huge amount of information

What is PCP?
Basically PCP = planning. The objective is a 'positive desirable future' for your son or daughter. Key to this is having a foundation of total unconditional respect for the person. Take their opinions as to what they want. Create a plan with goals starting with the end goal in mind. This then gives a sense of control and responsibility to all involved and a clear sense of direction. Ray referenced how much like anything in life we are all better off when we plan and set goals (as long as we dont shelve the plan and dont follow it).

Some key points:-

• This is not a one size fits all approach to people with special needs in a community rather it is a bespoke tailored service for each individual.
• This plan is created by a circle of people, that is, parents, services, experts etc. Parents in some instances have opted to not be involved in the planning but rather observe.
  
• Parents often know more in relation to their own child and therefore have invaluable input.
• To implement PCP Services will need to change.
  

It is worth pointing out at this point that while some services do a variation of this kind of planning many apparently do not.

Case Study

To put PCP is context there was an extremely interesting case study, that of David in Galway. Ray became an advocate for this PCP trial whereby a plan was created specifically for David. He now lives near his parents in his own home and is visited by 3 part time care workers as well of course as by his parents. This has made a huge difference and all parties are much happier as they follow and refine the plan.

UK Leads the Way
Whilst this concept originated in the USA the UK is leading the way. Ray specifically mentioned the "Putting People First" Whitepaper.

In Conclusion
Ray hopes we will follow the UK. He sees PCP as the way forward. He said parents should be policital and fight for what they want.

Footnote
Prior to the talk I spoke to a lovely woman with a 15 year old son with DS. She gave me some sage advice which I took on board and found resonated during Ray's talk.

She told me keep your child in mainstream as long as you can. Make sure you trust your own instincts as the experts dont know your child as well as you do. Her child was moved out of mainstream too early and she had to fight to get him back in. She concluded that keep your child integrating as much as possible as when your child is happy they will learn more. When her sons desires were ignored the morale fell and he stopped trying....