Positive Approaches to Challenging Behavior

Mental Health Domains Commonly Used in Wraparound Planning

The field of mental health also defines important areas of quality of life but these domains are described in a different manner compared to the intellectual and developmental disability field. The term used in mental health tends to include "dimensions of wellness" instead of "quality of life domains." It is important to choose the domains and/or dimensions that best fit each person and to decide how to measure these different elements of emotional and social well being.

SAMHSA’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness

Social – Developing a support system and feeling connected to others
Emotional - Having the skills to cope with stress and negative life outcomes
Spiritual – A search for meaning and sense of purpose
Intellectual – Knowing one’s strengths and expanding wisdom and skills
Physical – Achieving basic needs related to sleep, physical activity, and diet
Environmental – Living in positive settings that support well being
Financial – Satisfaction with current finances and future plans
Occupational – Obtaining a sense of positive meaning from one’s work

Rocks of varying size are balanced vertically on each other. The rocks symbolically represent how we must balance many different issues in life in order to achieve a sense of well being.

Since each person is different, the quality of life and wellness measures that are selected will vary. For example, a young mother may be struggling with depression while celebrating the birth of her child. An older man may be retiring with a comfortable pension while discovering that his children just lost everything to a forest fire on the west coast. When starting the FBA process, the team will need to consider each quality of life dimension and pick the type of assessment, survey, questionnaire, or other measure that can be used to better understand a person’s quality of life.

Combined Domains

Environmental

Social

Combined Domains