One person-centered planning meeting may be very different from another. People are different. Wants are different. Needs are different. Your person-centered planning meeting may be very different from your friends because you may have very different needs.

What makes a good planning meeting?

You feel free to talk about anything that is important to you, including your hopes, your interests and goals.

You feel free to talk about what you like and want to do every day, so you can put more of that into your life.

The focus stays on you.

Good brainstorming happens.

Everyone works together to figure out how to help you get the life you want.

Different options were explored; you didn't have to take the first answer that came along.

Everyone in the meeting shares helpful thoughts and ideas.

If people make suggestions you didn't like, you felt free to tell them you didn't like that.

If you have a signal that your facilitator needs to move things in a different direction, you feel free to use that signal.

What you wanted to talk about is talked about and a plan is made.

What you didn't want to talk about was respected.

People are respectful of each other.

You see a way to move on your personal recovery goals and are ready to try the stuff out.

The person writing everything down got everything that needed to be recorded.

People got invited, knew where to come and came.

People told you what they liked about you.

When you leave a person-centered planning meeting you should have goals you are comfortable having and that you want to have happen. You and your allies work together to decide what services and supports you need to achieve your personal recovery goals.

A person-centered planning meeting is not an event that comes and goes, and if everything wasn't in perfect alignment, you missed it. Person-centered planning is a process. As you gather information and learn more about yourself, you will need to update your Plan. Sometimes you will need to have another meeting. Sometimes you and your case manager or supports coordinator can work out any needed changes more quickly in a way that works for you.