Person-Centered Planning and Person-Centered Care, What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?
Person-Centered Planning and Person-Centered Care, although inter-related, are distinctly different from each other. Understanding these differences is crucial to ensuring compliance with the your state’s regulatory agency, and to meet Federal requirements for all ADH programs.
What are the similarities and differences?
Person-centered care is both a philosophy and an approach for providing care, and in the past, has been a choice. Conversely, Person-Centered Planning regulations are not a choice, but a mandate that dictates and defines how person-centered care must be implemented in the ADHC center.
The great news is that, because they are so interrelated, if you understand the basics of person-centered care and/or have begun implementing person-centered care practices in your center, incorporating the Federal Regulations for Person-Centered Planning should be easier. Unfortunately, though, this does not ensure that your center is in compliance with the Federal Person-Centered Planning requirements.
I just need to make sure the care planning process is participant led, right?
In addition to defining how the care plan must be developed (i.e., in a participant led, collaborative process), the Federal Person-Centered Planning requirements include many more procedures that must be implemented by each center to ensure that care, both clinical and social, is provided in a person-centered way. Additional requirements that must be met include, but are not limited to, addressing and documenting a participant’s strengths, writing the care plan in plain, easily understandable language; taking cultural considerations into account; facilitating access to community supports; ensuring informed decision-making; reviewing the care plan with the participant and any other individuals of his/her choosing and distributing it to the specified individuals; updating the care plan within designated time-frames and when the participant requests, and developing a process to negotiate conflicts between participant choices and professional recommendations.
Do we have to implement these requirements now?
The Federal Person-Centered Planning requirements have been in place since 2014. Each state has a different timeline as to when these are required to be in place. Updating your system of care to a Person-Centered approach is a big change, and will take time. Our best suggestion is to begin implementation now, with learning and understanding the requirements, and beginning to operationalize them now.
What is Required?
In general, surveyors will primarily be looking for evidence of Person-Centered Planning in a center’s documentation and Policy and Procedure Manual. If you are planning to develop the required Person-Centered Planning policies and procedures as well as create new assessment, reassessment, quarterly note, and other forms to show evidence of the Person-Centered Planning process on your own, please find links to the Person-Centered HCBS Federal Regulations and Guidelines at https://www.totaladhc.com/hcbs-final-regulations-42-cfr-part-441/ and https://acl.gov/Programs/CIP/OCASD/docs/2402-a-Guidance.pdf that you can use to help you develop necessary policies and procedures as well as forms.
But if writing your own policies and forms is too time consuming, and/or you need consulting & training, We can help!
If you need support with the implementation of Person-Centered Planning in your center, Total ADHC Solutions can help. If developing over 80 pages of new policies and procedures and over 30 new forms is too daunting and/or time consuming, Total ADHC Solutions has developed a comprehensive Person-Centered Policy and Procedure Manual (an addendum to your own P&P manual) as well as a set of new forms which address all PCP requirements. These new products cover the Person-Centered Planning requirements. Additionally, the new forms ensure your staff are documenting all the information required by the Federal requirements, which will help to avoid deficiencies. Individual center consulting is also available to help you meet all the requirements of Person-Centered Planning. Please contact us for more information.