Working Toward Person Centred Supports and Services

On March 31, 2009, the doors of the three remaining large government institutions for people with intellectual disabilities closed. The Mills has played a significant role in the closure process. Over the years, we have helped 18 people to find new homes in Lanark County. We have also welcomed many skilled and caring former staff from Rideau Regional to our team.
 

Although the physical forms of institutions have been closed, as a service-providing organization we recognize that we are challenged to support people with intellectual disabilities to be welcomed and respected as citizens in our communities. We are challenged to balance doing what is important for people (e.g., safety, security) with enabling people to discover and choose what is important to them as individuals. We are challenged to be more “person centered”.

Over the past year we have done a lot of work with our developmental services teams to change the way we think and the ways in which we work. Several themes are emerging:
 

• We are learning more about the people we support but this learning has to be ongoing and we have to be open to it.
• In the short term, we need to put more emphasis on how we (as staff and “supporters”) think and how we can change our routines and procedures. Our willingness to change will lead to possibilities for the folks we support to experience greater choice and self-determination.
• Building relationships is key – this holds true for the ongoing work we need to do to improve communication. We also need to place a lot of emphasis on supporting individuals to expand their “circle” of friends.
• Most days it’s easy to see what isn’t working. We’re ok at problem solving. It’s tougher to get in the habit of sharing stories of what is working and then to learn from those experiences.
 

So what? Why spend time talking about this? Well, it’s this notion I have that although we should be proud of what’s been accomplished so far we haven’t “arrived”, we are still building the road as we walk it. I am hoping that as we share insights into our learning journey that we will continue to build relationships with other organizations and enhance our capacity to learn together.
 

Mike Coxon
July 5, 2010