Person-Centred Thinking

Person-centred thinking is a set of values, skills, and tools we use to get to know someone and discover what they find important and what they want out of life.

It ensures that we focus on what matters to the people we support and their family and that we pay attention to staff as well.

By working in this way, we can make sure that people are truly listened to and are kept at the heart of all decision-making and how our service is commissioned, provided and organised.

All Dimensions support staff are trained to use person-centred thinking tools, which characterise and defines much of the relationship between a support worker and the person they support.

Person-Centred Thinking Tools

When we get to know someone we will use tools including:

• One Page Profile
• Relationship circle
• What’s working/not working.

To discover their perfect week (how they want to live) we will use tools including:

• Community mapping
• Perfect week.

To deliver their perfect week we will use tools including:

• Roles and responsibilities (doughnut)
• Communication charts
• Matching support
• Decision-making agreements

And, for ongoing learning and person-centred reviews, we will use tools including:

• Learning log
• 4+1 questions
• Person-centred review.

Colleagues use our in-house “Learning Connect” platform for training on each of these tools.

Our Online Person-Centred Thinking Course

Dimensions and Helen Sanderson Associates have also developed a practical, skills-based online course to help you make a difference in the lives of the people you support by better understanding person-centred thinking skills and tools.

The only online course that reflects the Learning Community standards, our practical and original course is aimed at helping individuals, families, and social care organisations better understand person-centred thinking skills and tools.

The course is flexible, and you can come back to the course a number of times, meaning you can use it as a learning aid, reference point and refresher!

If you’d like to try the course for your organisation, or bulk buy licences, please get in touch to request a demo on elearning@helensandersonassociates.co.uk

Person-Centred Thinking in India

We’re working on a buddying programme in India, aimed at spreading best practices in learning disability support internationally.

Volunteers from Dimensions will be matched with project workers in India. Buddies will work together to share practice, ideas, and experiences in order to improve services for people in both countries.

The project is financed by profits from the person-centred thinking e-learning course. A review and the results of the project will be shared at the annual person-centred thinking conference in India.