Person Centered Planning goes hand in hand with the Self-Advocacy and Self-Determination movement. This process gets to know consumers at a very detailed level: their likes and dislikes, their histories, their habits and routines, their strengths and areas they need support in, and their hopes, dreams and preferred futures. There are various forms of Person-Centered Plans: MAPS, PATHS, and Essential Life Style Plans.

This process pays great attention to the people in consumers lives, how close they are quantitatively and qualitatively. It asks the questions< “Are their friends and family in their lives?” or “Are the people in their lives limited to payed professionals? “Are they happy and do they have fun?”

Person Centered Planning is positive, and looks at the strength, dignity, and potential of the individual. It is not constrained by the pass nor views consumers as broken people needing sheltered or to be fixed.

Person Centered Planning affords consumers with the dignity of risk. They are encouraged to try out new things, to take risks, to learn from adversity, and to pick themselves, and to continue onward.