Focus on Center Activities

Currently, the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine's University Affiliated Program, is completing its second year of a five year training grant in the area of positive supports, Ensuring Inclusive Communities: Education and Training on Positive Supports for Persons with Challenging Behavior. The project, funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has three primary components. The first is preservice education through the annual offering of a graduate course on positive behavioral supports at the University of Maine. Secondly, inservice education is being conducted with 12 teams throughout the state. The third component, dissemination, includes the publication of several books on positive supports. One has been written by a group of parents who participated in training through the grant. This article focuses on the inservice education component of the project

This year over 250 individuals (family members, people with disabilities, teachers, administrators, therapists, direct care staff, advocates, educational technicians) have received education as part of a team, through the training in positive supports grant, Ensuring Inclusive Communities.

These People have been part of 12 teams across the state that were selected to take part in six one-day education sessions on positive Supports for individuals who exhibit challenging behaviors.

The first three sessions Cover required topics on:
- values and attitudes
- "assessment"
- person centered planning

Each team selects its own topics for the remaining three sessions. Topics have included:
- making choices
- communication
- encouraging friendships
- crisis intervention
- natural supports
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Curriculum modification
- school inclusion
- collaborative teaming
- parent-professional partnership

Each session Is designed to present information to increase the knowledge of team members, while inviting them to evaluate their own practices.

Often, the teams complete a Path (Pierpoint, O'Brien, & Forest, 1992) to help them develop a vision that will have a positive impact on the individuals they support. This process assists team members to recognize that, if the education is to be beneficial, they must share the information with others outside of the team. The following are examples of how Path has been used effectively by three teams to expand their vision for positive supports for individuals with disabilities who display behaviors that are considered challenging.

Parent Education

During the first two years of the project, two parent groups discovered through a Path that they wanted to share information with professionals about their own children and other children with disabilities. Two common themes in the discussions of both groups of parents has been their frustration in trying to get appropriate services for their children and how to work effectively with the professionals in each setting, As a result, both groups identified goals to develop a written product that would share their knowledge about their own children and would find common ground in the parents' and professionals' mutual concern for children

The first group of parents identified as a goal to write a book aimed at professional audiences. The intent of the book was to offer specific examples of professional behavior that from the parents' perspective had either "helped" or "hurt" their children and the parent/professional relationship. The headings "honoring the family's confidentiality," "providing positive supports","listening and being heard," "making all children successful," and "fostering friendships" are a few of the topics that are part of the book. (A preview of the topic "putting positive supports into practice is included in this newsletter.) This book is going, to press in May and will be disseminated throughout Maine and nationally.

During the second year, another group of parents created individual books about their children as a result of completing a Path. This was inspired by a suggestion from one of the parents whose wife, Susan Olivares, had written a book about their son which has been used very successfully with a variety of professionals. (Ms. Olivares, a clinical social worker, is preparing to publish a workbook designed to assist parents in developing their own child-centered book.) The group brainstormed what their own book might include and came up with a list of 18 potential topics from which each parent chose the topics that seemed most helpful in his/her case. Some of the topics were:

-What is my child's history?

-What are my hopes and dreams for my child?

-What are my children's strengths, gifts and talents?

-Who are my child's friends? For many children with challenging behaviors, there are no friends, but the parents were encouraged to acknowledge this and write about how this lack has affected their family and the child's life )

-What are my child's needs?

Many of the topics were ones that the group had considered during their training on MAPS (Vandercook, York, & Forest, 1989) and ones that they hoped would provide a vital, positive perspective on their children and families.

These books were perceived as providing an opportunity for both the child and the family to be presented with compassion, tolerance, and acceptance. The parents identified many goals they hoped to accomplish by writing individual books about their children. These goals are best summarized by the hope that the books will bring parents and professionals together in concern for the child and help everyone to remain child focused.

Adult Service Team

A third group that has conducted a Patb to help them identify their vision for individuals with disabilities and their goals to help realize this vision, was an adult service agency that provides support to individuals with developmental disabilities and mental health concerns. Their desire to complete a Path stemmed from their realization that if the training was to be effective, they needed to share the information with co-workers in a systematic maiiiier. As the team members represented an array of positions (e.g., parent, individual who receives support from the agency, administrators, and direct care staff) the members felt they needed a plan that could be presented to the executive director of the agency and the board of direc- tors. The Path helped them identify the topics and the audience for training that they would offer. It also helped them to identify a time-line for developing materials and completing the training. They anticipate beginning the first of many three part training sessions in June.

School Team

One school team that participated in the education, requested several sessions on inclusive education. A concern of the team members was that the staff was divided on its support of inclusion for all students. As a result, a Path was completed to assist the team members to clarify their vision for all students and to determine the steps that they would take to make the vision a reality.

The Path is only one of many processes that were used with the teams to help them gain a better understanding of positive supports and their role in supporting people with whom they work. Specific training activities were designed to meet the unique needs of each team. Teams are chosen through a written application process. Requests For Proposals for 1997 will go out by May. The number of teams will be determined by funding availability.

For more information about the project, contact Marsha J. Clark, Ph.D., Project Director, (207)874-9527.

References

Pierpoint, J., O'Brien, J., & Forest, M. (1992). Path: A workbook for planning ositive possible futures - Planning alternative tomorrows with hope. Inclusion Press.

Vandercook, T., York, J., & Forest, M. (1989). The McGill action planning system (MAPS): A strategy for building the vision. Journal of the Association for Persons witb Severe Handicaps, 14, 205-215.

Centerpoint is the newsletter of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, Maine's University Affiliated Program.

In complying with the letter and spirit of applicable laws and in pursuing its own goals of pluralism, the University of Maine shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or citizen status, age, disability, or veterans status in employment education, and all other areas of the University. The University provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request. This publication is available on audiotape and upon request this material will be made available in other alternative formats to accomodate the needs of individuals with disabilities.

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