What is Person-Centered Planning?

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According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), person-centered planning is a process for selecting and organizing the services and supports that an older adult or person with a disability may need to live in the community.  Most importantly, it is a process that is directed by the person who receives the support

Person-centered planning identifies the person’s strengths, goals, medical needs, needs for home-and community-based services, and desired outcomes.  

The approach also identifies the person’s preferences in areas such as:

  • recreation,
  • transportation,
  • friendships, 
  • therapies and treatments, 
  • housing, 
  • vocational training and employment,
  • family relationships, and
  • social activities.

Unique factors such as culture and language are also addressed.

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Perhaps the most powerful idea of person-centered planning is that the way a person who needs services is seen and understood by those who deliver that service generates a powerful internal consistency in the ways the person is served.

-A. Frank Johns

Person-Centered Planning in Guardianship; Part III Person-Centered Philosophy2012 A. Frank Johns, JD 1971 Florida State University, LL.M. in Elder Law​

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Take a moment to reflect, on how the definition of person-centered planning applies to your work as a guardian.
Think about your own life – would you want to be told where to live, if you could work and where, or if you would be sent to a care facility during the day?