October TCAID: In Focus
Building Circles of Support for people with intellectual disabilities
Dr Darren McCausland - Senior Research Fellow
Person-centred planning places individuals with disabilities at the centre of service provision, building supports around individuals in response to their own strengths, needs, wishes and goals. The HSE’s National Framework for Person-Centred Planning identified that building a Circle of Support (COS) around individuals is key to effective person-centred planning, helping individuals to develop and achieve their personal goals. A COS is a group of natural supports who come together to support an individual in their life, typically including close family, extended family, friends, neighbours, advocates, community members, and anyone the individual wishes to include. However, research indicates that broad COS are often missing from person-centred planning for people with intellectual disabilities. IDS-TILDA now wishes to translate its research knowledge to develop a range of multimedia resources that will enhance the COS of adults with intellectual disabilities, thereby influencing more effective person-centred planning and the achievement of personal goals.
The proposed project activities will translate IDS-TILDA recommendations into practical and scalable resources to enhance and visibly increase COS-based person-centred supports for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
• Firstly, this will translate to resources that will be implemented by the Knowledge User (Stewarts Care) in its person-centred planning programme. • Additional reach will be achieved through the wider IDS-TILDA and Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability (TCAID) network, and new audiences through participant-led knowledge exchange events both nationally and internationally. • A national event will be hosted in partnership with Collaborators, the Federation, with its reach of 57 service providers, and the HSE. • An international event will be hosted in partnership with Collaborator Temple University (USA), with the potential to reach their wider networks of individuals with intellectual disability, families and service providers. The proposed resources will enable better planning of supports and resources for individuals with intellectual disabilities, their families, and service providers. This will enhance the achievement of personal goals and quality of life outcomes for individuals and families, improve targeting of resources for service providers, and deliver on stated policy aims for HSE and Government. Lead PI and Affiliated Institutions/Collaborators: • Prof McCarron (PI), Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA), Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability • Ms Siobhan Kearins (Knowledge User), Director of Day Services, Stewarts Care Ltd. • Dr Alison Harnett (Knowledge Broker), CEO, National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers • Prof Mac MacLachlan (Implementation Facilitator or Change Agent), National Clinical Lead for Disability Services, Health Service Executive • Prof Sally Gould-Taylor (Knowledge Broker), Director, Institute on Disabilities, Temple University, PA, USA • Dr Darren Mc Causland (Knowledge User), Programme Manager, Day Services, Stewarts Care Ltd.; Senior Research Fellow, Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability