Ten days ago, the Port\u00e1l publishing house published my book \u201cPerson-Centered Planning in Social Work and Services\u201d. I had two reasons for writing it. The year of publication corresponds to two interesting anniversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first reason for writing more extensively about person-centered planning is the long-term absence of this topic in social work, services, and social policy. In the Czech Republic or Slovakia (with which we understand each other), no one has yet systematically addressed this concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it is taught somewhere, person-centered planning is very often confused with the therapeutic direction according to Rogers, or with one of the methods of individual planning. At the same time, it is a concept of systematically building a socially cohesive society that responds to the roots of social exclusion. Person-centered planning far exceeds the level of individual work with people and social work as such. It focuses on the whole of society, seeking a dignified place for each individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as an effort to practically implement Wolfensberger\u2019s Principle of Normalization, later renamed the Valorization of Social Roles. The original intention was to help one group of marginalized people \u2013 people with intellectual disabilities \u2013 live good lives outside institutional settings. However, its validity is much broader and its use would greatly help us in alleviating social exclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The value base from which person-centred planning emerged is the same as that on which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is based. What has been achieved thanks to person-centred planning is contained in important articles of the Convention \u2013 for example, Article 12 Equality before the law or Article 19 Independent living. Person-centred planning is a means of achieving the major obligations that this international legal norm has enshrined. And this brings me to the first anniversary: \u200b\u200bThis year marks twenty years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Czech Republic has not moved much towards fulfilling the human rights of people with disabilities since the ratification of the Convention. Among other things, we continue to build new constitutions, even if they are smaller, and we are not willing to accept that everyone really has the right to a normal life. Person-centred planning helps us understand how to do these things differently and better. We could say as a society that in the next decade we will move faster in protecting the rights of people with health disabilities \u2013 person-centred planning could play a significant role in this if we start using it more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second reason why I started working on this topic is that social services too often struggle very unsuccessfully with individual planning. In my experience, the main reason is a lack of understanding of its meaning in social work and services, which leads to the belief that individual planning is bureaucracy and a burden that only holds people back from useful work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But being able to agree with the client on why, what and how we are going to do it is the foundation of social work. If we are not able to do this, we are not doing our job well. The techniques and tools of person-centered planning are proving to be very useful tools for understanding the meaning and good practice of individual planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year marks twenty years since the obligation to plan individually was included in the legal regulation of social services. It is therefore surprising that there is still such a problem with individual planning \u2013 this royal discipline of social work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it is more or less a quarter of a century since work began on the quality standards of social services, in which, despite all the not-so-successful amendments, some important elements based on the concept of person-centered planning are still preserved \u2013 for example, the requirement to base the provision of social services on the personal goals of the person, not to replace regular services for the public with social services, to strengthen the natural social ties of the person, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I consider it useful to recall this and to offer person-centered planning as a source of understanding and instruction on how to improve the quality of social work and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPerson-centred planning helps individual planning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Person-centered planning and the Social Services Act<\/h2>\n\n\n\n