What does ‘Person Centred’ mean?

The following statement has been taken from a report called ‘What is Person Centred Planning’ and the section ‘All means all’ – written by Helen Sanderson Associates.

“Person Centred Planning is rooted in the belief that people with disabilities are entitled to the same rights, opportunities and choices as other members of the community. Disability does not justify poor treatment, low standards, injustice or oppression. Person Centred Planning starts from an assumption of common decency. “What is a decent way for our society and our services to treat somebody of this persons age, gender and culture in terms of their living arrangements, security and autonomy?”

Traditionally services have gathered people with the highest support needs or the most challenging behaviour into large segregated facilities, while allowing those who require less support to live more independently in the community. Professionals have ‘matched’ people to different services along a continuum: the more support people are seen to require, the more strangers they have to live with, and the more differences there will be between their home life and lives of other people in the community.

Person Centred Planning challenges the whole idea of batching people together on the basis that they are perceived as needing a similar type or level of assistance. It challenges the assumption that because someone needs a lot of help it is acceptable for them to have an impoverished or restricted life. 

All Means All means that it is morally unacceptable for people to be rejected by community services or excluded from community participation on the basis of the level or type of support they need. This means that people who practice person centred planning place a high value on loyalty and sticking with people over time, even when they test to the limit our capacity to accept, believe in and include them”

Working in a person centred way means spending time getting to know a person well; understanding who, and what is important to someone, and what good support looks like for them. And then doing something with the information.

Person Centred Planning takes this approach into supporting people to plan what they want to do with their lives. People use a variety of ways to plan their own lives, and there are a number of Person Centred Planning tools that can be used to help someone think about their future. Words you may hear include Essential Lifestyle Planning, Personal Futures Planning, Map and Path.

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Person Centred Planning starts with the knowledge that the person themselves is the expert on what they want. Family, friends, and people who know them well are invited to support the person to think about and plan their future. These are known as their ‘allies’ or Circle of Support.

The plan itself is facilitated by someone who is not part of that ‘circle of support’ but is there to build a supportive team around the individual and provide a structured way of helping the group think about the persons future. 
Planning is not about gathering information for a file, or producing a report about what will happen and when. Planning happens when people who care, are having positive conversations that support the person to move on and work towards getting a Good Life.

Planning is about getting a life – not about getting services.  Although there may be services that help someone to lead a better life – this is not the aim of Person Centred Planning.

John O’Brien talks about the 5 Dimensions of Inclusion; things we all need in order to live a good life.

Choice and Control                Being Somebody

Belonging                          Contributing

Sharing Ordinary Places

These things aren’t just for people with learning disabilities – we all need family, friends, choice, activities, shared places and a sense of belonging in our lives. Person Centred Planning should help to make sure that people with learning disabilities get this too.

Some myths about Person Centred Planning have emerged over the years, so it may be worth re-examining what Person Centred Planning is, and is not.