Assessing Service Needs and

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• Assessing Service Needs and
• Developing IL Plans
• Or
• What is This Thing Called
• Self-Determination?
• Region VI
• Independent Living Conference
• Mary Katherine Long

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"If you want to move people, it has to be toward
a vision thats positive for them, that taps
important values, that gets them something they
desire, and it has to be presented in a
compelling way that they feel inspired to
follow. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Meaningful activity and participation in the
natural rhythms of life are essential for our
mental, physical, and spiritual well being.
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Self Determination

• It is about being in charge, but is not
• necessarily the same thing as self-sufficiency or
• independence. It means making your own choices,
• learning to effectively solve problems, and
  taking
• control and responsibility for one's life.
  Practicing
• self-determination also means one experiences the
• consequences of making choices.
• Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights

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Principles of Self Determination

• Freedom
• Authority
• Support
• Responsibility
• Confirmation
• Robert Woods Johnson Foundations National
• Program for Self-Determination for Persons with
• Disabilities

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Freedom to plan a real life

• The ability for a person along with freely
• chosen family and friends, to plan support,
• rather than purchase a program.
• Robert Woods Johnson Foundations National
• Program for Self-Determination for Persons with
• Disabilities

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Authority over your resources

• The ability to control a certain sum of
• dollars in order to purchase supports.

Robert Woods Johnson Foundations
National Program for Self-Determination for
Persons with Disabilities
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Support for Building a Life in your Community

• Arranging resources and personnel,
• formal and informal, that will assist a
• person to live a life in the community
• That is rich with social associations
• and contributions.

Robert Woods Johnson Foundations National
Program for Self-Determination for Persons with
Disabilities
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Responsibility to give back to your community

• The acceptance of a valued role in ones
• community through competitive
• employment, spiritual development and
• general caring for others in the community,
• as well as accountability for spending public
• dollars in ways that are life enhancing for
• persons with disabilities.
• RWJ Foundation

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Confirmation

• Affirming the central role YOU have in
• leadership and change.
• Imagine Enterprises

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The most terrible poverty is loneliness and
the feeling of being unloved.Mother Teresa
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Setting and Initiating Goals

• Exploration
• Issue Identification
• Informed Choice
• Personalized goal

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Assessment is a processnot a document

• Exploration means LISTENING!

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BLOCKS TO LISTENING

• Distractions
• Pressure to produce
• Preoccupation with yourself
• Your own filters or judgment

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Hanging With Intent

• Building trusting relationships and communication
• Listening

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ExplorationWhat Has Value For You?(what makes
you get out of bed in the morning?)

• Friends
• Job
• Independence
• Money
• Community
• Church
• Living situation

• Pets
• Family
• Shopping
• Art
• Fun
• Hobbies
• Social Life

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ExplorationWhat do/dont you want to have in
your life?

• Live in the community
• Neighbors
• Friends
• Job
• No roomates
• Roomates I choose

• Decreased interaction with the system
• Choice of supports
• Avoid stigma
• No curfew
• Family members as caregivers (or not!)

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Issue Identification

• What is important to you?
• What are your personal, family, social values
• What do you want to change?
• What is the most important to YOU?

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Meaning (Informed Choice)

• What do you have to gain?
• What do you have to lose?
• What are the risks involved?
• Who determines what the risks are?
• Who REALLY wants this?

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Goals

• What the customer wants to achieve
• Steps to get there observable and measurable
• Who will be responsible for steps

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Customer profiles

• Earl
• Bobbie
• Betty

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Earl is a 35 year old man with a developmental
disability as well as a seizure disorder. He
lives in the community with several members of
his extended family. Earl receives SSDI because
his father is deceased. He has a part time job
selling newspapers Earl comes to you for
services because he needs assistance in filling
out some paperwork from the Social Security
Administration.You see that Earl is a bright and
enterprising fellow and you would like him to be
more independent. In the course of talking with
Earl you learn that he hands most of his earnings
over to his uncle and step mom. You talk with
Earl about the possibility of moving out on his
own and offer to help him apply to live in a
local subsidized housing center. You also offer
to help him get employment services. You are
concerned that Earl may be getting exploited by
his family but he indicates that he has no
problems since they help him out a lot and he
says he likes his family a lot. He also
indicates that he is afraid to live on his own
because of his seizures.
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Bobby is a 27 year old man with a diagnosis of
schizophrenia and mild mental retardation. He
lives in a small group home with 4 other men and
receives a variety of services through a local
social services provider. He is an engaging
young man and enjoys spending time the local drop
in center for people with disabilities where you
are employed as well as the public library, local
restaurants and a nearby casino. When he is out
in the community he is almost always accompanied
by a Habilitation Specialist from the provider
agency. One day one of the consumers at the drop
in center comes in and expresses her concerns
that she has seen Bobby at the local casino seven
times in the last three weeks. She says that
Bobby gets 10 out of his benefits check and
spends it on the slot machines. When he runs out
of money he continues to sit at the slot machine,
pulling the arm and drinking free pop. She says
that you should call the provider and get the
staff member fired for taking Bobby to the casino.
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Betty is a 67 year old woman with terminal
cancer. She lives with Ed, her husband of 40
years in the home they bought after their
children left home. She is certified for Hospice
care and in home assistance from a local health
provider. Her husband provides most of her
personal care along with all of the cooking and
cleaning in the home. Your job is to develop a
plan of care that will allow Betty and Ed to use
the hours of service they are qualified for in
the best way. So far all they have been able to
tell you is that they want to be able to spend
the time they have left with each other. They
want as much time alone as possible and indicate
that they resent the intrusion of the paid
caregivers. What kind of information do you
need to get from Betty and Ed?