http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6OIrXGwk4o

In this film Beth Mount explains how Person-Centered work differs from System-Centered. System-centered planning comes from the idea that the people we support are defined and treated through the idea of what the system needs in order to run efficiently. The system believes it is their job to “fix” people so they define and create a treatment plan and hope to get it correct before even meeting the people who they support and for who these systems are put in place for. A major contrast to that is person-centered planning. People don’t belong to systems; they belong to themselves, their families, and their communities. If we can see them in a different light, in the capacities that they can bring to a community, then our thinking shifts dramatically from how to fit people into a system to how do we support people to live good lives in communities. Furthermore how do we take things we need from systems and services and use them in a more responsive way.