התמלול המלא של Support Planning with People with Disabilities

00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:30.000 It's a flexible and ongoing and complex process that means that if a person's life changes, if they're um if they're, you know, change their mind, if they have different circumstances, if their environment change, we need to, it's an ongoing process to always find what is important to the person and try to find the best fit in the source resources and services to meet um those needs, changing needs. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:35.920 So if you apply those those principles, it means then that no two plans are ever going to be the same. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:44.000 So you can't just take a plan from somebody and roll it over to somebody else, and that plans will change over time as well. 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:54.160 So when you are coming to a person, working with a person and you're seeing a plan that was made five years ago, might not make sense anymore. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:10.000 So again, it goes back, and I think this is the reason that I really wanted to write this um this chapter, is that it's complex it's it's it's a complicated task, it changes, but most of all, it's not just a document. 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:17.600 Support plan are actually a blueprint of how we do our job, how we communicate with the person, and what are we trying to achieve. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:23.120 So they're live documents that inform action, they're not just things in the means. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.639 And they're a means to an end rather than just an end in themselves, would you say? 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:29.279 Absolutely, and I think this is the most important. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:34.799 If if if there's a one-take-off message here, is this this it's a mean for an end. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:43.279 So in the chapter you write about three big processes that should be followed in developing any type of plan. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:48.320 And the first of these are getting to know the person, or which is sometimes called pre-planning. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:58.879 Can you explain that why that's so important and some of the strategies that that uh support coordinators or planners might might use to get to know the person? 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:04.960 So I think that getting to know the person is the is the part that often so often gets missed. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:16.159 If we want to plan, if we want to understand what who is the person, how they communicate, and work together with them, we need to understand who is standing with us. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:19.120 We need to understand who are important people in their life. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:22.320 How do they and how is this person communicate? 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:27.200 Sometimes, surprise, surprise, not everybody communicate verbally. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:33.200 It does not mean that people cannot express what they want and what they like or dislike. 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:37.200 So it's really important to understand how to communicate with that person.

00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:43.840 How do we know when they're happy, when they're sad, if if they like something, they don't like something? 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.720 We need to know their environments. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:51.600 So what services they already used and what worked and what didn't work. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:56.480 How are you going to, um who are people that are helping that person? 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:01.600 All of those things, and most of all, again, we are building partnership. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:16.000 So building partnership means that when we are coming into the planning process, we need to, everybody in the planning process, if we're talking about shared power, everybody should know who is doing what and why and what's the purpose of it. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:39.519 So we need to make sure that everybody that's sitting in the room or doing the planning actually know what is the purpose of this planning, what is the focus of it, who am I as the professional, and how do I communicate with the person and make sure that um to assist them in the way that they need in order to make the decisions that they need on their planning, on their supports. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:44.879 The second process is about assessing support needs. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:52.799 That sounds very professional as opposed to the first one, which is finding out about a person and asking them what's important to them. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.480 So what does assess assessing support needs mean? 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:00.000 So assessing support needs is not diagnostic. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:01.919 We're not diagnosing people. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:13.759 It's about taking information from various um perspectives and trying to understand again what does the person want and what do they need? 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:22.879 What is important to them in order to live a good life, and what is important for them in order to be safe and to live the life that they want. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:44.559 So it means that we again need to spend some time with the person and uh try to understand specifically what do they want out of life, what has worked with them for them um in the in the past, what didn't work, what is important to them now, um, what are the resources in their environment? 00:11:44.799 --> 00:12:03.039 It really is about um anal analyzing data from different ways, from different perspective, um from different services to understand the person, the situation that they live in, and what are the available and resources in their environment. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:12.000 So how might you really try and understand what somebody's support needs are when they can't tell you about them? 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.440 Again, it goes back into relationship. 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.080 It goes back to what why are we doing it? 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:22.320 We need to understand, again, individualized, what is important to that person. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:46.879 So let's think about how can we, if we're going, we spend the time at the beginning getting to know the person and the situation, it would be good to maybe um spend some time with them, see how they communicate with other people, um, spend uh some time with people that are important to them and to and knows the person well and can some shed light on what is important, what do they enjoy doing. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:13:03.200 It could be interesting and important to speak with service providers or people that know people, uh that person in different contexts, um, to see, again, what works for them, what doesn't, and what they seem to enjoy and important to them and what doesn't. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:08.799 And the th the the the third process is about formulating a plan. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:14.159 Can you talk about maybe the different parts of in of formulating a plan? 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:21.679 So I think that again, if we're thinking about planning as a as a process, as an ongoing process, we need to think about it. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:34.159 And and I just want to again step back and say that planning process does not look all this neat and clear with those process with the with the very nice and defined um processes. 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:42.159 It is muddled up, but again, it is always about thinking about what we're trying to achieve and how to do that. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:14:03.440 So maybe the stages are not well defined, but when you're spending some time with the person and you're working through the planning process, um then you would reach the end game, which is a document that is actually or a plan that is actually important documents, important thing for the person and what and how to achieve it. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:16.080 So just stepping back a little bit about what is the again um the planning process, but I think that every planning process starts uh or is what is the person's goals? 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:25.440 So the person's goals is not um unfortunately, it doesn't work as if um some people think that we're just not going to ask people what do you want? 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:28.240 Chris, what do you want what do you want in life? 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:29.440 I don't know. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:30.960 I work it out as I go along. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:32.000 Exactly. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:39.279 So the thing is that what do you want, or what are the goals that we are working on, is something that you need to work out together. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:45.679 You need to ask questions, you need to actually um spend some time and and explore some options. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:56.639 Think about um different again, achieving the same thing, but uh what do you mean when you say you want to be more active, socially active? 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:02.080 What do you mean when you say you want to go to um you want to see whatever? 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:02.639 Okay? 00:15:03.120 -->

00:15:07.039 So it's it's about that and it's about negotiating with the person. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:12.080 So thinking about what would help you to to to live a good life? 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:15.120 What do you want in order to give what is important to you? 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:16.720 What would you like to do? 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:20.159 Sometimes we need to break it up to small questions. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.120 Um so tell me about a good day. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.879 What does a good day look like? 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:26.159 Why is that good? 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:27.120 What do you do? 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:28.240 What will you want to do? 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:29.279 Where do you want to live? 00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:30.399 Where do you want to work? 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:32.399 Who do you want to spend time with? 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:32.879 Okay? 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:42.720 All of those things are things that we can think, start to engage with the person to think about what is important in their life and what would they like to achieve. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:54.480 At the end of the day, goals, setting goals is not about getting, you know, big, broad statement that I want to be happy and I want to be fit. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:16:05.200 It's more about I want to do stuff, and we need to unpack what specifically is that stuff that you want to do, or who do you want to be? 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:16.159 It could be about relationship, it could be about activities, or it could be about something that would make you more independent or to have more choice and control about your life. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:22.879 So it's really sort of digging down to sort of those big ideas and getting down to some more detail. 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:32.320 If you want to have relationships, what sort of relationships who with, what type of people, and and then once you've set some goals, what what do you do then? 00:16:32.639 --> 00:16:36.159 Before you set goals, you y we all have a lot of goals. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:50.320 So if we have that kind of conversation when we're figuring out a lot of things that are important to us, um it's always about then prioritizing, okay, which of these goals are important for you to work on this part of the plan? 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:58.879 So again, it's about setting goals that are realistic, but again, important to the person. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:16:59.519 Again. 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:16.880 So after we set up goals and we have some priorities, and oh, and one thing that we really have to consider is again that people have different goals that might be sometimes conflicting to what other people think that that person's goal should be. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.920 Um and then we need to negotiate that. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:28.640 And we need to have an open discussion with everybody involved about what goals are we going to pursue in this plan. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:38.799 Having a

set of goals, again, realistic but important to the person, then we have to go into develop strategies. 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:40.960 How are we going to achieve those goals? 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:42.480 Who is going to do what? 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:44.640 What kind of services are we going to need? 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:47.359 How much of those services are you going to need? 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:51.759 Looking for for each goal, there's many ways to achieve it. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:02.000 But looking at those at these goals, we have to think again, now we have to be realistic to look what is the available funding we need to look at. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.839 What are the um alternative services that we can use? 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:21.039 We can look, we have to look at, again, in a holistic way of what are the resources in the person's environment, what are their skills, who are people, um, you know, um informal people that could provide mainstream services. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:32.640 It doesn't need to be only if I want to go, I don't know, to the pool or to the gym three times a week, it doesn't mean that I need to have a support worker to take me to the gym three times a week. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:35.599 It could be that I'm going with my brother to the gym. 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:42.640 But it could be that I'm going with my brother to the gym once a week, and I need a support worker to take me there twice a week. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:43.279 Okay? 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:51.279 And I would need some funding for a personal trainer to help me work with the different machinery in the gym. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.200 God knows what they're doing. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.960 So you've got goals and then you've got a set of strategies. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:00.240 And what what's the last part of the planning process? 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:05.599 So I think the most important thing is to remember that again, it's a living document. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.279 So people change. 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:10.480 Um maybe you tried something and it didn't work. 00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:12.720 Maybe you want now different things. 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:26.799 So it's about setting up from the get-go who is going to be responsible for what and how are you going to review and monitor that the plan is actually working and actually achieving the outcomes that the person wants. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:34.640 So who is going to actually monitor that, okay, execute and work with the plan? 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:36.799 And how are you going to communicate that? 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:45.359 Um it's about tying up all the loose ends to make sure that that plan is going to work for the person. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:20:16.640 And then it's about setting up uh review meetings or or uh processes of monitoring and review to make sure that the plan is actually still reflective of what the person wants six months from now, that it's actually working, and if not, then we can change it or think about how to change it, or to change different strategies or goals in order to make sure that again we will achieve the ultimate goal, which is making the person live the life that they want. 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.960 So we seem to spend a lot of time now talking about goals. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:29.359 Um if you think about somebody who's living in a group home, for instance, they might have a goal, as you said, about going to the gym three times a week. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:33.039 But that's only three times a week for maybe three hours. 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:41.599 So what's the connection then between that goal and what you might expect a support worker to do in the rest of the time? 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:44.720 Are they connected in any way? 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:58.240 Well, I think that again, if you're looking at, for instance, an NDIS goals or NDI plan goal, it's about what does the person want to achieve and the strategies are the way that the person are going to achieve it. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:00.480 So going to the gym are the strategies. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:16.160 We need to think about looking at those goals and those big goals and trying to understand what other strategies in the different services, in the different life domains, in the different um ways are going to be achieved through the goals. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:29.039 So again, what what other activities could we offer or services could we offer to actually help the fur person fulfill the goal that they want? 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:32.720 So going to the gym is one way, but there are many other ways. 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:37.920 But if we look at a plan, we can think about, okay, this is actually what the person put forward. 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.960 It's important for them to be more independent. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:51.039 How can I support them in any way in the way that I work with them, in the capacity that I work with them, in order to be more independent in different areas of their lives? 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.319 Or to be fitter, so instead of getting in the car to go shopping, we might walk. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.599 Because that would contribute then to towards that bigger goal. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:03.920 So big goals are important to everyday things, aren't they? 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:24.640 Yeah, and I think again it's always about a relationship and thinking about we as support workers thinking about how can we actually support the person, what is important to them, and okay, if we have a goal, we have good clues of what is important to them because somebody has set and helped them unpack what is important to them. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:29.039 Let's think about how we can support them to do that as well in different ways. 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:37.119 The chapter covers uh uh a lot of uh detail about the principles and the processes of planning. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:50.799 Um but for those people who maybe won't read the book um and are just listening to you, what are the four things that you really want them to take away from either listening or reading the chapter? 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:57.440 I think the most important part is that it is a living and breathing document. 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:00.079 It's not just a bureaucratic exercise. 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:09.839 Planning is about spending some time understanding and analyzing, working with the person to help them live the life that they want. 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:12.720 So that is the essence of it. 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:27.359 How we do it, what are the principles of it, and all of those things are things that you can read a lot about in our book, but it's you and us are working, these are the sh our values, this is the way we should work. 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:46.400 And I think that what this chapter tried to say is hang on, um, it's not about producing papers, it's about working with people and thinking what is important, and it's actually about unpacking what is all this person-centered uh practice all about. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:55.440 And I think this is what we are required to do today by policy, we'll this is what we're required to do today by the value of our professions. 00:23:55.599 --> 00:24:02.559 And I think it's really, really important to think about how we can unpack that, how can we put it into practice? 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:07.200 And support planning is the way to put it into practice, to my belief. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:09.119 Okay, thank you very much. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:10.000 Thank you.