This week, 30 professionals, family members and people with disabilities participated in a training on person-centered thinking. The core concept of person-centered thinking is to find an appropriate balance between supporting what is important to a person with what is important for the person.
If this all sounds a little familiar, I introduced this concept in last month’s column. Well done for remembering.
What has struck me most about this training is the sad history that brought us here. We are the reason that supports to people with disabilities have not been person-centered all along.
By “we” I mean the very systems and professionals who purport to be in service to people with disabilities. We have prioritized sheltering and protecting people with disabilities to the extent that, in many cases, we have taken away any shred of confidence, happiness and humanity that they may have started out with. All this we have done in the name of supporting people’s health and safety.
But does my health and safety matter so much if I can’t be happy?
The oppression of people with disabilities is long-lived and systemic. The historical institutionalization of people with disabilities was in part to protect them from the evils of the world, and in part, to protect the rest of the world from facing difference.
In Colorado, we may have done a credible job of moving people out of institutional buildings, but we just brought the essence of institutions into community settings. In many cases, people with intellectual disabilities, in particular, have limited choice of where they live, who they live with and what they do with their time. Someone else almost always has power over their lives, and often, it’s the very people whom they have hired to “support” them. (Although they didn’t really get a vote in that hiring process, either.)
By “we” I mean the rest of the community as well. The community looks to providers of intellectual and developmental disabilities services to safeguard everyone with a disability. People with disabilities end up “belonging” to the service providers, who then are expected to protect them like property. And protecting someone ends up looking an awful lot like controlling them.
Thinking in a way that is person-centered does not neglect a person’s health and safety. It just finds a balance between health and safety and satisfied and content. Healthy and miserable is no longer an option.
The conversation before person-centered thinking was “you can’t eat that candy, it’s bad for you” (control) or “eat all the candy you want, it’s your choice” (neglect). The person-centered conversation helps the person explore what it is about the candy that they want and what the consequences are of eating a handful versus a piece.
Just like we’d hire an attorney or an accountant to give us guidance around the law or our finances, the person with a disabilities hires a professional to give guidance in life choices.
And once in a while, we all need a little guidance.
Tara Kiene is president/CEO of Community Connections Inc.
