- Accreditation
When an organizationassesses HCBS and compares results to the recognized standards. An organization that achieves accreditation has provided evidence to an outside association or group that formally confirm that the organization meets regulatory requirements and high standards of practice.
- Action Planning
An action plan is used to organize the necessary work by breaking down a complex task into smaller steps. Action plans are often used to keep a team focused and to monitor progress over time.
- Charting the LifeCourse
A person-centered planning process is a framework with tools that can be used to help people organize ideas, values, and goals in order to problem solve and improve quality of life over time. Parents, case managers, teachers, students, and anyone interested in exploring ways to problem solve, navigate their life, advocate for changes in support can use Charting the LifeCourse.
- Coaching
The act of supporting a person in learning a new skill while working directly in an educational or service enviroment. Two types of coaching are often described: 1) a peer-to-peer interaction process where one person with more information about a practice shares how to do a skill as a way to learn together over time, and 2) an expert-driven approach where a person who has mastered skills related to a practice models actions and provides feedback to another person usually in a formal and systematic manner. Research supports the use of coaching strategies as a sustainable method that ensure a practice will be used and maintained in HCBS over time.
- Cultural Competence
A culturally-competent organization has defined the values, attitudes, behaviors, systems, and policies needed to work with people across cultures and to value diversity. Assessment processes and data are used to adjust, address, and adapt to differences from diverse cultural viewpoints, and to work toward improving racial equity and racial justice.
- Evaluation Plan
An approach to organizing the ongoing assessment of practices by explaining what is being evaluated, describing evaluation questions that identify measures and create a plan to collect, summarize, and use data to improve HCBS outcomes. The evaluation plan addresses how data are used for decision making in meetings throughout the year and as part of an annual evaluation.
- Fidelity of Implementation
Fidelity of Implementation refers to how well a practice is implemented in the way it was intended. This is important for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 practices. At Tier 1, which is the focus of these modules, a team needs to implement person-centered and positive support practices in a consistent manner so that the team can decide if the changes that are made are working effectively enough to continue putting in time, energy and resources. Tools like the Minnesota Team Checklist are used by providers to guide implementation of person-centered and positive supports. Measuring and ensuring fidelity of implementation can help teams make sure the action plan created by a team to implement a practice results in positive outcomes and to make sure these changes are woven into HCBS.
- Groupthink
A way of thinking that team members adopt to conform and avoidance of conflict related to diverse opinions. Team members avoid disagreement and may become convinced that the group is better than others without basing this judgement on fact. Groupthink can result in the team choosing to ignore the moral or ethical consequences of team decisions, as well as reduced critical thinking, leading to poor decision making.
- Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
Federal, state, local, and tribal governments develop and finance Home and Community-Based (HCBS) services to help ensure people across the lifespan can get long-term supports and services in their homes and communities instead of within institutional settings if that is their choice. These services help people live their lives as independently as possible. Examples of services include: medication management support, assistance in preparing meals and shopping in the community, or access to evidence-based practices that help people achieve the highest quality of life possible.
- Important For
The term “Important For” refers to those things that are needed to help keep people safe and that ensure mental and physical wellness. Examples of what is “Important For” a person can include: ensuring basic safety at home and in the community, maintaining daily hygiene that prevents serious pain or illness, taking medications that keep a person alive and healthy, using mental health practices that prevent severe mental illness such as depression or substance abuse, and making sure a person is considered a valued part of the community.
- Important To
The term “Important To” refers to those things that make us happy, content, gives us purpose and meaning to our day, and makes life enjoyable. Examples of what is “Important To” us include: favorite items or belongings, places we choose to visit, events and activities we enjoy, a feeling of having social status in our community, the ability to predict and control our day, choosing a preferred rhythm and pace in life, honoring our routines and rituals, and finding and maintaining key relationships.
- Mentoring
A process that involves people with expertise and training in a particular practice who train others, oversee coaching systems, and help to ensure that fidelity of implementation in HCBS is achieved and maintain.
- One-Page Description
Information often one page in length that captures important details about a person including sections to organize simple summaries. These sections can include what people like about me, what is important to me, and what you can do to support me. These descriptions have been used to support a variety of people across the lifespan who receive services and to support HCBS staff, county, or state professionals.
- Outcome Measures
Changes that occur because of personson-centered and positive support practices. These changes may be captured using quantitative or qualitative data. Examples include changes in social and emotional skills, greater staff retention, higher satisfaction, improvement in quality of life.
- Outcome Statements
Outcome statements in person-centered practices are broad value-based sentences that help create a vision of the future. Outcome statements in these modules are organized into four areas: people supported, people providing services, the provider organization, and the community.
- PATH
PATH is a person-centered planning process created to support people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities identify a vision for their future. A PATH facilitator starts by talking with a person about their dream or vision around a specific area. The person will choose who they want involved in the planning process. The facilitator leads the person’s team through the steps involved in the PATH including discussing what is happening now, who should be enrolled in helping to make the dream a reality and mapping out the 3 and 6-month goals that will create momentum. Teams often use PATH process as a way to improve HCBS.
- Performance-Based Staff Development
Performance-based management staff development is used to provide evidence that training in person-centered and positive support practices is resulting in observable change. A group developing performance based staff development will start by defining the mission and goals for the targeted training. Measures are designed to show that there are changes in staff behavior while supporting people receiving services. Data are used on a regular basis to assess progress, adjust the training, and celebrate successes. Strategies for recognizing and rewarding staff who are actively embedding new skills into their everyday work are highly visible and data are used to hold everyone accountable for creating a person-centered and positive culture.
- Person-Centered Plan
A person-centered plan is a process that is used to create a plan for a positive and meaningful life for someone by building on his or her interests and strengths. There are different methods that can be used to help a person create their dreams for a better future. The person who asks for a person-centered plan chooses the people who will attend the meeting, the facilitator, and the location where the event is held. The goal of a person-centered plan is to create a set of actions that will help a person live their best life. There a many planning models that can be used to guide a meeting. However, the best person-centered planning process uses elements from different approaches to meet the needs of each person.
- Person-Centered Practices
There are three elements of person-centered practices:
- Person-Centered Strategies that everyone can use to help people learn about what brings joy to someone and makes life worth living. These tools are also used to find out what is important to a person as well as understanding their needs for health, safety, and well-being.
- Person-Centered Planning is a process that is used to create a plan for a positive and meaningful life for someone by building on his or her interests and strengths. There are different methods that can be used to help a person create their dreams for a better future.
- Person-Centered Organizational Changes address how services and supports are planned and delivered. Changes that are made include fixing policies, adding ongoing opportunities for learning, and building community supports. Services for people across the lifespan are changed in ways that improve quality of life outcomes.
- Person-Centered Thinking
The foundational value-based skills that change the way in which someone sees another person that makes it possible for person-centered plans to be effective. Tools used in Person-Centered Thinking encourage active listening and relationship building and includes problem solving in ways that supports a deeper understanding of what is important to a person . The goal of person-centered thinking is to understand who someone is by their strengths and abilities, and what they can contribute.
- Positive Behavior Support
Positive Behavior Support is a framework used to improve the quality of a person’s life and prevent or decrease challenging social interactions. The tools and strategies used in positive behavior support encourage using social communication skills while changing social settings to prevent challenging behaviors. Positive behavior support is based on research from areas including biomedical and behavioral science that is driven by person-centered and culturally responsive values and uses the science of implementation to create sustainable and lasting using systems change.
- Positive Support Practices
The term positive support refers to practices that are: a) person-centered, family-centered, student-centered, and community-centered, b) evidence-based with research studies that show how effective an approach is and who benefits from the practice, c) sensitive and respectful to the unique culture of each person involved, d) adapted and improved over time using data to guide use, and e) often implemented with other practices within complex everyday settings.
- Qualitative Data
Information that is used to better understand the perceptions and emotional states of people and that seeks to capture the details of something that is being evaluated. Examples of qualitative measures include interviews with one person or groups, reviewing documents to assess whether changes have occurred, written descriptions of a situation or setting that occur in rich detail, or case studies and stories used to assess organize what is being learned by grouping into categories or codes and looking for themes.
- Quality of Life
This is a common term used to describe the standard of health and wellbeing as it is experienced by a person. Quality of life can be broken down into domains that are considered assessed as part of quality of life: emotional wellness, social interactions, work and employment, financial status, living environment, physical health, intellectual stimulation, and spiritual growth.
- Quantitative Data
Information that is measured and results are shown using numbers to assess the amount of quantity of something. Examples of quantitative data include staff attrition numbers in a given year, the frequency of incidents that represent challenging social interactions, or how many people report improved quality of life scores using measures that define important quality of life domains (physical health, wellness, finances).
- SMARTIE Goals
This acronym is used to help teams remember the key elements that are included when writing a goal. Traditional SMART goals include being Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time- bound. Some groups have recently added Inclusive and Equitable. turning SMART goal into a SMARTIE goal.
- Staff Retention and Attrition
Retention rate of staff refers to the percentage of employees that choose to remain working in an organization over a defined period of time while attrition is the percentage of staff that leave the organization and may not have been replaced yet.
- Strategic Planning
An improvement process used to set priorities, allocate resources, improve the way an organization manages the work involved in HCBS. A strategic planning process brings employees and other stakeholders together to create a common vision and goals for improving outcomes for people.
- Subscales (for Fidelity of Implementation Graphs)
When scores on a tool are organized into summaries within an overall score that represent areas within the scoring system of the tool. A subscale score on the Minnesota Team Checklist can show how well the team is addressing different elements of fidelity.
- Tier 1 Evaluation
Effort, fidelity of implementation, and outcome data that are collected to assess how well a team is using person-centered practices that focus on improving quality of life and social and emotional skills of all people in a setting. Tier 1 refers to a framework for increasing the intensity of efforts with Tier 2 representing a little higher level of support for people for some people and Tier 3 indicating a very high level of support needed for a few people.
- Tiered Model of Person-Centered and Positive Support Practices
A framework for using resources strategically by investing in universal strategies for all people in a home, work, or other setting and gradually increasing the time and intensity of supports based on the unique needs of each person. This model is applied to person-centered practices and other practices that improve quality of life.
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Traumatic life experiences such as child or domestic abuse, natural disasters, or other negative life events can have a lasting impact on a person’s health and emotional wellbeing. Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavior Therapy is an evidence-based practice that addresses this issue. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a positive support that teaches children and adults skills to recognize negative or unhealthy thoughts associated with past experiences and to engage in stress management and coping strategies when these thoughts occur. This approach can also include teaching new skills for parents and caregivers of children involved in therapy. A family therapy approach is used to help recognize family dynamics, teach new parenting skills, support stress management for both child and family members, and work on improving communication skills.
- Vision Boards
Vision boards in person-centered practices are used to help a group of people come together to talk about what HCBS services look like now and what the vision is for the future after implementing person-centered action practices. A facilitator draws pictures and writes simple words and messages on a large sheet of paper that is taped to the wall. Markers, pastel crayons, and other art supplies are used to make these colorful and interesting posters.
- Workers Compensation
A type of insurance in businesses that result in payments made to employees in an organization when they are injured or become sick due to work. Payments are made to cover medical expenses or wages lost due to injury or illness.
- Wraparound Planning
Parents of children and adults with mental health needs and challenging behavior are often expected to communicate with a number of different service systems. Each of these services require parents to complete forms, attend meetings, and respond to requests related to services. Juvenile justice, children and family services, special education, mental health, and developmental disabilities are all examples of these different services. The wraparound plan is mean to help youth and their parents by improving service coordination. Wraparound planning is a team-based approach that is child-and family-driven. Team members include natural supports (friends, family members, and people who know the child or young person well). Individuals from formal supports might include a parole officer, counselor, psychiatrist, or special education teacher. The goal of wraparound is to assess the child and family strengths in order to build a plan of support that will improve quality of life.