Person-Centered Planning Research Projects

The following describes our projects in the area of Person-Centered Planning

• Information about developing a consultation plan for your agency.
• Information about tools related to Person Centered Planning.

Through a Real Choice Systems Change (RCSC) grant awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), CT DMHAS in collaboration with Yale PRCH faculty and staff implemented an innovative model of person-centered care across state LMHA facilities. Click here for further details on this project.

Project Director: Janis Tondora, Psy.D.

Key Staff: Kimbery Guy; Rebecca Miller, Ph.D.; Chyrell Bellamy, Ph.D.; and Miriam Delphin, Ph.D.

In collaboration with CT DMHAS, PRCH carried out a 5-year research grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. This project examined the development and implementation of person-centered planning within two large, urban mental health systems. The aim of the project was to examine a model of person-centered care which incorporates much of what has been learned in recent years regarding the effectiveness of interventions such as self-directed wellness strategies, community integration programs, peer-support services, and collaborative treatment planning. The project targeted the needs of people of color who are living with psychosis given that health disparities research and experience has shown that such individuals comprise one of the most disenfranchised populations in American medicine. While the project focuses on this target group, its results have the potential to ultimately inform state-wide and nation-wide efforts to develop culturally-responsive, person-centered models of care and planning. A brief overview of the inteventions within the grant is provided below:

• Illness Management and Recovery Groups (IMR): The IMR program, nationally recognized as an established, evidence-based practice, consists of weekly sessions conducted by trained practitioners covering topic areas such as: personal recovery strategies, building social support, reducing relapses, using medications effectively, coping with stress, coping with problems/symptoms, and getting your needs met in the healthcare system.
• Facilitated Person-Centered Planning: Peer facilitators will be available to support persons in recovery and case managers in organizing and conducting planning meetings which bring together the participant and his or her primary clinician with his or her network of professional and natural supporters. The goal of PCP meetings is to discover a vision for a desirable future and to develop an action plan to achieve that vision.
• Community Inclusion Program: Project participants will be involved in "recovery groups" which will be facilitated by consumer-providers. Content areas of recovery groups include such things as recognizing and asserting personal strengths, discussing stigma and barriers to inclusion; and action planning to promote community involvement and acquisition of social roles. Participants will also have the opportunity to choose and participate in a variety of subsidized excursions and social and recreational activities in the community.

• About Treatment Plans and Treatment Plan Meetings
• Community Connections Program Brochure
• Recovery Mentors Brochure
• Getting in the Driver's Seat of Your Treatment: A Toolkit for Person-Centered Care
• Empuñando el Volante de su Tratamiento: Preparación para su Plan

For more information on Person-Centered Planning, contact Janis Tondora, Psy.D.