A key issue in services for people with special needs is an individual plan guiding services.  We are referring to services for mental health, education, socialization, maturation, and for living.  This may be called a treatment plan, an educational  plan, an individual service plan, an "IEP" (Individual Education Plan), master treatment plan, or something else.   It is common for such plans to focus on mental health and education.  We wish these plans were more comprehensive, but in depth plans covering education and mental health are common.

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FamilyLight^sm would welcome making comprehensive individual plans for every growing child through young adulthood. Another way to describe it, would be that every person of every age in the education, mental health, health care, rehabilitation, or social service systems should have such a plan. Note the (inclusion of health care, which makes this pretty broad).  But we digress.  Our attention here needs to be on therapeutic schools and programs.

We would like to see every school or program that focuses on change using very carefully constructed plans for every student / client that state exactly where that student / client is now,  where they (the school / program  and the client / student) are trying to go, how they intend to get there, and who is responsible for what. 

→Where the student / client is now:  This calls for not only thorough assessment and formulation, but a clear explanation of the assumptions that are being made to fill the gaps in what is actually known  about the student / client.  If there is disagreement between people on the team providing services that needs to be acknowledged.  To the extent feasible, the student / client  -- and for children and young adults dependent on their families of origin, the parents, too  -- should be part of the team for purposes of the planning process. If there is an outside case manager or referral source with  case management responsibilities, that person should also be part of the team. 

→Where they are trying to go: The only way an organization or even an individual therapist or teacher can stay focused on getting to particular results, unless there is a specific definition of those results is a very visible reference point that everyone on the team sees regularly.

→How they intend to get there:  There needs to be a common strategy that is supported by the entire team, that defines the resources to be needed, when and how they are to be applied, and what is the division of labor.

→Who is responsible for what:  There needs to be accountability placed on the whole team and then individually, what each team member is responsible for. It also needs to address how we will know if each person individually, and the whole team collectively are delivering.  It needs to show how to know whether or not the plan, and strategy are succeeding, and what we must do to revise and update the plan so we are applying what we learn as we go along. 

Schools and programs fall short on this in many ways.  First there are those who simply do not provide a written plan.  One therapeutic school in Massachusetts admits it does treatment plans and keeps them "in the drawer" where they have no use except to be able to demonstrate to the very naive licensing authorities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that they are in compliance with the licensing regulations, even if they are otherwise meaningless documents.  If Massachusetts requires treatment plans should they not also require that they be used?

Those who write treatment plans, too often do not state where the student /client is now.  They don't tell us the starting point. 

Some do not tell us how they plan to accomplish the goals. some do not define responsibility.  Altogether, too often the "plans" simply confuse accountability.

Those who do use plans too frequently write treatment plans that simply avoid being specific about where they are trying to go.  We constantly see so-called "goals" that begin with the word "improve" as in "Improve ability to control anger."  That is not a goal; it is a process.  There is no indicator to re-direct the process because it is evident that what was intended is not being achieved.  Football players do not get points for moving the ball down the field;  they get points for taking the ball over the goal line or between the goal posts.  When a "goal" begins with a word like "improve," there is no way to know when the goal is reached.  We expect plans in place that are specific to where they are trying to go. 

Feedback is invited. We will publish selected feedback.  Email:  FamilyLightResponse@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: No  program review, no matter how positive, is a blanket endorsement. No criticism is a blanket condemnation.  When we express our level of confidence in a school or program, that is our subjective opinion with which others might reasonably disagree.  When we assert something as fact, we have done our best to be accurate, but we cannot guarantee that all of our information is accurate and up to date. When we address compliance with our guidelines, you need to remember that these are only OUR guidelines -- not guidelines from an official source.  We have also set the bar very high, and do not expect any school or program to be in total compliance.  It is not appropriate to draw a conclusion of impropriety (or even failure to live up to conventional wisdom) from our lack of confidence in a school or program or from less than perfect conformity to our guidelines.  Some will say we expect too much. Readers are responsible for verifying accuracy of information supplied here prior to acting upon it. We are not responsible for inaccuracies.

Last updated 9-14-08; Minor edits up to 11-11-08