Running Head: INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M

18
TH
FEBRUARY 13
ANDREW SCHEMBRI
B.PSY (HONS.) 2
ND
YEAR
406393M




PERSON-CENTRED PLANNING

EARLY-INTERVENTION TECHNIQUES,
COMMUNITY AND SCHOOLING

INE2636





Title:
Define Self-Determination and Person-Centred Planning in
relation to:
a) Early intervention.
b) Transition planning from school to adulthood in
relation to individuals with intellectual impairment.

Refer to the relevant literature.



INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 2
Introduction
In order to answer the question at hand, one should start off by defining what person-
centred planning and self-determination are in a nutshell. OBrien and Lovett (1992)
defined person-centred planning as a family of approaches to organizing and guiding
community change in alliance with people with disabilities and their families and
friends. PERSON-CENTRED PLANNING enables individuals with intellectual to
increase their personal self-determination and improve their own independence. This
begs the definition of the term self-determination. Self-determination is the input of
people with disabilities, to promote independence, empowerment, leading by
example, communicating, networking and encouragement. It is all about disabled
people making their own personal choices.
In this assignment I will be defining the above-mentioned concepts in the light of
early intervention techniques and the transition from schooling to adulthood;
Early intervention is a system that promotes the disabled child's growth and
development and supports families during the critical early years (from birth-3 years
of age).
After this, the individual and the family are faced with sustaining the transition
between the early childhood years into adulthood. Kim and Turnbull (2004) define
this transition as being a major life change for most young adults and their families,
and generally it is depicted as an especially stressful time for young people with
disabilities and their families.




INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 3
Person Centred Planning vis-a-vis Self Determination
Person-Centred Planning is the set of processes help the family and individual
develop a vision for the future and to establish a shared plan toward achieving desired
goals. (Pratt, 2005) Person-Centred Planning gave a much more positive alternative to
traditional planning where people with intellectual disabilities were regarded as
deficient. This led to the institutionalization of people with disabilities thus depriving
these individuals from freedom and conveying the idea that the disabled need fixing.
Person-Centred Planning gave an alternative to this system of planning in which (as
the name suggests) the individual is key when it comes to the planning. (OBrien,
1992) This means that instead of having a pre-planned program standard to which the
individual has to accommodate themselves, Person-Centred Planning provides a
design which revolves around and accommodates the individual, thus considering the
needs and wants of the person concerned.
Person-Centred Planning takes a much more positive and accommodating approach
and this is reflected in the fact that its aim is to highlight the good in everyone and
explore niches where this good can be shown within a community (OBrien, 1992).
As opposed to institutionalization, in Person-Centred Planning, the customer chooses
the team members that will help out in the planning. This team is meant to focus on
the persons desires and their ability to be an active and independent citizen within a
community and make their own personal choices.
Self-determination is a concept that goes hand in hand with Person-Centred Planning.
Self-determination gives the individual a voice to make decisions and choices. This in
turn decreases behavior support which in turn leads to greater satisfaction with the
individuals life, increases motivation and allows the individual to live the lifestyle he
or she wants. All of this is achieved through a balance between risk-taking, support
INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 4
and safety. Effective self-determination leads to good communication skills, freedom
of choice and greater control over ones life.
This having been said, one can go on to say that Person-Centred planning and Self
Determination are inextricably linked. There is a strong relation ship between the two.
Person-Centred Planning ultimately aims towards Self Determination and Self-
Determination needs planning to occur. Self-determination, together with person-
centred planning is designed to shift power in the mental health system from the team
helping the individual to the individual themselves. Most of the time, self-
determination implies that the people direct the services they receive and are also
given most of the control. (Harris, 2002)

Person Centred Planning and Self Determination from Early Childhood to
Adulthood
The term person-centred planning refers to "a family of approaches to organizing and
guiding community change in alliance with people with disabilities and their
families and friends" (O'Brien & Lovett, 1992, p. 5).
Kim and Turnbull (2004) put forward and explain three of these planning approaches:
Family-Centred Planning, Person-Family Interdependent Approach and the
Individual-Centred Planning.
Family centred planning is (as the name in itself implies) family-oriented. It is
recurrent in early childhood interventions and strives towards unification and a better
family quality of life. In contrast to a person-centred approach that focuses primarily
on adults, the family-centred approach proposed a new way of thinking about
supporting families: that families are active decision makers and services should focus
on and meet their needs (Turnbull, Turbiville, & Turnbull, 2000).
INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 5
Despite difficulty in defining specific characteristics of a family-centred approach,
three elements seem to be common across family-centred models: family
choice, family strengths perspective, and family as the unit of support (Allen & Petr,
1996). The first component of a family-centred model, family choice, is the
valuing of families as the ultimate decision makers regarding the goals for their
children and themselves (Allen & Petr, 1996; Bailey, McWilliam, et al., 1998;
Turnbull, Turbiville, et al., 2000). A family strengths perspective, the next component
of the family-centred approach, embodies the belief that every family has strengths
and also acknowledges families' needs, preferences, visions, and resources (Saleebey,
1996). The final component of a family-centred approach is the consideration of the
family as a functioning social support unit, calling for a family system approach for
understanding and supporting the interdependence of all family members (Leal,
1999).
Person-Family Interdependent Approach occurs in the transition to adulthood and is
oriented towards both the individual and the family thus seeking a balance between
meeting the needs of both and in turn a better quality of life for both. The relationship
between young adults with intellectual disabilities and their families is without a
doubt of paramount importance. In recent years, the measuring rod for effectiveness
of service in such assessments is quality of life. (Dennis, Williams, Giangreco &
Cloninger, 1993; Schalock, 1994; Schalock et al., 2002). Researchers find person-
centred planning to be an effective way of enhancing quality of life (Schalock et al.,
2002). The transition between school and adulthood does not affect the individual
only but also the family as a whole. (Marshak, Seligman, & Prezant, 1999;
Szymanski, 1994). In order for these transitions to be a success, one must take into
account the strong tie between the quality of life for the individual and the quality of
INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 6
life of the family. (Blacher, 2001; Dennis et al., 1993). For this reason, when
addressing the individuals quality of life, one must also take into consideration the
quality of life of the family. (Bailey, McWilliam et al., 1998; Park et al. 2003).
Self-determination is very important when it comes to pinpointing the desired
outcomes of the transition. (Wehmeyer & Schalock, 2001). Self-determined people
make their own choices and decisions yet it might be the case that a severe intellectual
disability might impede the individual from making such decisions alone. In such
cases, support from the family and other people would be required. Wehmeyer (1998)
stated that given a person makes decisions for themselves (even with support) they
can be defined as self determined. Thus young adults and their families should work
together to better the quality of life of both (Turnbull & Turnbull, 2001).
Typically, person-centred planning approaches have have given attention almost
exclusively on enhancing the quality of life of the individual with the intellectual
disability, and in doing so, partially ignoring the family's quality of life as a priority
outcome. Family-centred planning approaches prevalent in early intervention and
early childhood services, by considering the entire family as the unit of attention or
recipient of support, stress the importance of the familys choice. This might lead
conflicts to arise, especially when there are tensions between family members or
between family members and professionals (Allen & Petr, 1996). Kim and Turnbull,
for this reason, propose a system of person-family interdependent planning.

Conclusion
In the light of what has been said, one can go on to say that self-determination and
person-centred planning are two concepts that overlap and go hand in hand. Self-
determination is the tool for achieving the ability to make ones own decisions whilst
INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 7
person centred planning aims towards a better quality of life. When taking early
interventions and transition planning into account it seems that intervention and
support from family and professionals is necessary for the individual to make
personal choices even though help might be needed. When it comes to person centred
planning one could go on to say that from early child hood to adulthood, the person
with the intellectual disability has to move on from family-oriented planning on to
person-family interdependent planning in order to finally accommodate the transition
into adulthood.

INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 8
Bibliography
Allen, R. I. (1996). Toward developing standards and measurements for family-
centred practice in family support programs. . Redefining family support: Innovations
in publicprivate partnerships .
Bailey, D. B. (1998). Family outcomes in early intervention: A framework for
program evaluation and efficacy research. Exceptional Children , 313-329.
Blacher, J. (2001). Transition to adulthood: Mental retardation, families, and culture. .
American Journal on Mental Retardation , 173-188.
Dennis, R. E. (1993). Quality of life as context for planning and evaluation of services
for people with disabilities. Exceptional Children , 499-512.
Harris, K. (2002). Self-Determination. Michigan Bar Journal .
Kim, K.-H., & Turnbull, A. (2004). Transition to Adulthood for Students With Severe
Intellectual Disabilities: Shifting Toward Person-Family Interdependent Planning.
Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities , 53-59.
Leal, L. (1999). A family-centred approach to people with mental retardation.
Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation.
Marshak, L. E. (1999). Disability and the family life cycle. New York: Basic Books.
O' Brien, J., & Lovett, H. (1992). Finding a Way toward Everyday Lives: The
Contribution of Person Centred Planning. .
Park, J. H. (2003). Toward assessing family outcomes of service delivery: Validation
of a family quality of life survey. . Journal of Intellectual Disability Research , 367-
384.
Pratt, C. (2005). Establishing long term goals: What we are hoping to achieve. The
Reporter , 10(3), 1-2.
Saleebey, D. (1996). The strengths perspective in social work practice: Extensions
and cautions. Social Work , 296-306.
Schalock, R. L. (2002). Conceptualization, measurement, and application of quality of
life for persons with intellectual disabilities: Report of an International Panel of
Experts. Mental Retardation, , 457-470.
Schalock, R. L. (1994). Quality of life, quality enhancement, and quality assurance:
Implications for program planning and evaluation in the field of mental retardation
and devielopmental disabilities. Evaluation and Program Planning , 121-131.
Turnbull, A. P. (1996). Self-determination within a culturally responsive family
systems perspectives: Balancing the family mobile, . On the road to autonomy
promoting self-competence among children and youth with disabilities , 195-200.
INE2636 Assignment Andrew Schembri 406393M 9
Turnbull, A., Turbiville, V., & Turnbull, H. (2000). Evolution of Family Professional
Partnership Models; Collective Empowerment as the Model for the 21st century. The
Handbook of early intervention .
Wehmeyer, M. L. (1998). Self-determination and individuals with significant
disabilities: Examing menaings and misinriterpretations. . Journal of the Association
for Persons with Severe Handicaps , 5-16.