We employ a model of intervention based on the concept of integrated services. When viewed from a family-centered perspective, this implies that:
* interventions are driven by concern for the needs and desires of consumers (i.e., individuals and families), emphasizing explicit outcomes stated in a positive manner.
* services are available in close proximity and are accessible without reference to physical, psychological, social, linguistic, or other barriers.
* services are comprehensive and appropriate, in that they possess features that address priority needs the family has identified, at a level of service sufficient to their need.
* services are formulated and delivered at a high level of quality such that the family perceives them as an organized whole and can participate in a consistent and effective manner.
* services serve to promote psychological competence and self-sufficiency rather than focusing exclusively on dysfunction and pathology.
* services are oriented toward full participation, partnership, and empowerment of family members.
* services are sensitive to cultural, gender, racial, linguistic, and class issues.
1. Person-centered thinking
2. Family Support
3. Social Interaction
4, Positive behavior management
* Focus on creating outcomes that represent quality of life: community presence, choice, competence, friendship, respect and participation.
* Emphasize the strengths and capacities of the focus person and seek to find ways to build upon those capacities through team activities.
* Yield a descriptive "desirable future" for the focus person and seek to find ways to build upon those capacities through team activities.
* Integrate both formal and informal supports available through human services agencies and the community.
* Empower the focus person, family, friends and other interested community members to plan and make decisions with professionals and direct service workers.
* Encourage flexible role boundaries of team members (e.g. encourage people to do what needs to be done, whether or not it falls within their job description.
* Include agencies that are committed to organizational change to provide personalized services.
* Recognize that creating desirable futures does not happen quickly (and that the vision may change over time) and invest in solving problems over time.
* Support team members when the get "stuck" with current barriers and lose sight of the "future."
* Planning efforts are effective only when the team is willing to follow-up planning with action.
* Treat families as capable of mastering developmental tasks rather than as passive recipients of resources.
* Address the broad-based needs of the family and individual family members, not only those in needs related to problem behavior.
* Encourage the development and maintenance of healthy, stable relationships among family members and others (e.g., community, other families).
* Mobilize resources to the family as a whole as opposed to serving only the identified client.
* Make supports available to families in ways that are flexible, individualized, and responsive to the changing needs of families.
* Encourage a healthy balance between the use of informal and formal sources of support.
* Build upon existing support networks of the family rather than replacing them with formal services.
* Encourage professionals to assume a broad range of roles and functions.
* Build partnerships between parents and professionals, based on trust, honesty, respect, and open communication.
* Protect families' personal and cultural values and beliefs.
* Minimize intrusion upon the family by "holders" of external resources needed by the family.
* Create opportunities for the family and its members to acquire the knowledge, skills, and capabilities necessary for them to become more competent.
* Build upon family strengths rather than merely correcting weaknesses.
* Maximize the family's control over the amount, timing, and methods of provision of support, resources, or services.
* Encourage informed decision-making on the part of the family vis a vis provision of information.
* Provide community-based resources and supports rather than delivering at locations and in ways that remove people from the mainstream of society.
The attainment of social inclusion is not possible for every person. Thus, it is important for service providers to demonstrate presumption toward normalization strategies that "take into account the particular individual concerned, the limits of current service know-how, and the individual's own choices."
Images associated with the environments, activities, persons, and language which surround service recipients impact upon the way they are viewed, and therefore treated, by other citizens. Thus, supports can convey messages which are positive and use "person-first" language. In other words, "talk about people as people first."
Social Inclusion principles seek to demonstrate that:
* All people, regardless of level of functioning, have the potential to grow and learn. Effective teaching strategies and adaptive technologies can be employed to enhance the potential and competencies of consumers.
* The way in which people are perceived by other citizens will influence the way in which they are treated and the quality of their life conditions. Thus, the attainment of socially valued roles (e.g., student, employee, neighbor, etc.) should be a goal of service provision.
* People learn from and tend to imitate the behavior and habits of those with whom they associate. Thus, supports can facilitate the opportunity for consumers to routinely associate with typical, valued peers who exhibit appropriate, desired behaviors.
* People with disabilities (including behavioral disabilities) are entitled to the opportunity to be personally integrated in typical settings. Thus, they should live in regular homes (e.g. individuals and families), be educated with non-disabled peers when possible, work with ordinary people, and shop, play, and worship in the same places and in the same way as others in the community.
* People with disabilities (including behavioral disabilities) usually need support to successfully participate in typical, valued settings. Thus, a variety of supports should be provided to increase the likelihood that integration will be positively experienced by service recipients and other citizens.
* Devaluation and social rejection is dramatically heightened when persons are served in groups with others who are also stigmatized. Thus, individual supports rather than group programs should be made available to consumers.
* Intervention goals can be stated in positive terms (e.g. increasing pro-social behavior) to the extent possible.
* It is assumed that adequate positive reinforcement is available in the environment of the client to provide an incentive for pro-social behavior. Well-trained, professional therapeutic foster families are the key to successful positive behavior management.
* The least restrictive and intrusive intervention which is likely to be sufficient to resolve the problem behavior can be attempted before more restrictive and intrusive interventions are utilized.
* Interventions which seek to decelerate or extinguish problem behaviors can be attempted in the context of accelerating positive behaviors.
* Punishment, defined as interventions which seek to decrease problem behaviors through a negative consequence, are used in the context of a planned program in collaboration with professionals. Allowable intervention strategies include mild reprimands, time out from reinforcement, response cost, correction and overcorrection. Corporal punishment will never be used.
* Natural consequences, which have value in teaching individuals about real-life situations, will be used to the extent possible. No negative consequence will be administered to any individual which is demeaning, ostracizing, or otherwise devaluing of their worth as an individual.
* The respect and dignity of the individual will be strictly respected. Procedures will be implemented in a non-judgmental, objective manner and not in anger.
* The focus of behavior intervention shall strive to prevent the emergence of behavior problems by providing structure, developing relationships, establishing expectations, and consistently consequating behavior.
* In extreme behavior situations, after attempts to de-escalate the incident have occurred and there is concern for the safety of the individual, staff, or other community members, non-violent physical intervention may be used by persons who have received training. The sole purpose of physical intervention is to insure safety and this should not be used as a behavioral technique.
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