Person-Centered Care Planning

Person-Centered Care Planning (PCCP) is a holistic approach to planning and providing behavioral health services. Person-Centered approaches guide and organize services to increase consumer engagement in service interventions based on the connections between provider interventions and the consumer’s goals and visions.

When the provider and consumer goals are aligned, consumers are more engaged and activated collaborators and services are more effective. According to one of the authors of the model, PCCP:

"…encourages people receiving services and their supporters to focus on goals aimed at increased functionality and community integration rather than solely on reduction of symptoms and decreased use of hospitalization. It helps people to focus on increasing the quality of their lives and look to a better future with more meaningful activities and social relations. The barriers to success resulting from the person’s disability are identified and the plan is an effort to explain to everyone concerned how those barriers will be overcome while enhancing the person’s chances of successfully achieving the agreed upon goal."

Grieder & Theis, 2007

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Benefits of PCCP Training

While our services only help people who show up and participate, PCCP supports participant and provider engagement for several reasons:

• It works – Research found PCCP training “can increase engagement in services and holds the promise of a genuinely collaborative service-planning process that makes documentation more meaningful to the client and more feasible and efficient for the clinician.” (Stanhope et al., 2013)
• It keeps work on track – PCCP is an empirically-supported service approach that facilitates precise, targeted, evidence-based services.
• It pays off – PCCP interventions and documentation are consistently in line with service-authorization and accrediting bodies’ regulatory and accountability guidelines.
• It is a state priority – Maryland’s Public Behavioral Health System (PBHS) is committed to establishing itself as a recovery-oriented system wherein participants in behavioral health services take the lead in life and treatment decision making.

Importance of Engagement

Low rates of service engagement are frustrating and expensive, but the following issues can be avoided:

• Missed appointments and cancellations are lower. When these actions happen, participants do not receive the full benefits of services, programs have lower billable hours, and providers scramble to accommodate rescheduled appointments.
• Dropout rates typically lead to increased time and energy spent processing intakes, discharges, and readmissions which are improved with this model.
• Outreach efforts to re-engaged participants often include calls, letters, and visits which can be decreased allowing the ability to avoid burdensome administrative tasks and low success rates compared to ongoing coordinated services.

Why dropout and disengagement happen

Participants’ perceptions and experiences are impacted for multiple reasons:

• A positive or negative attitude towards the caregiver negatively impacts the relationship.
• If the caregiver’s attitude (especially if they appear to be unsympathetic or appear to not listening) can damage the trust of the participant.
• There’s a lack of active participation in decision making by both individuals.
• If there have been previous experiences with negative treatment like compulsory admission, experiences with being restrained or in seclusion, as well as previous coercive treatment.

PCCP as Part of the Solution

PCCP strengths are based on a recovery-oriented approach. Person-Centered Care fosters collaboration and shared decision-making. This increases consumer and family engagement and enables providers to reduce time spent in outreach, compared to time spent on services and interventions that work.

The Evidence-Based Practice Center (EBPC) incorporates a Person-Centered Care Plan into all its training in evidence-based and empirically supported models offered by its cadre of consultants and trainers. To enhance providers’ access to and utilization of PCCP in service delivery, the EBPC is pleased to offer multiple training options. EBPC and BHA recommend follow-up consultation and ongoing support for the full implementation of this practice.

Need Technical Assistance?

The EBPC regularly schedules technical assistance sessions for Maryland providers seeking help with putting Person-Centered Care into practice. To find out about upcoming sessions, click the button below.

Technical Assistance Sessions