Integrating Supports in Assessment and Planning

Content

Jim Thompson and his coauthors present a systematic approach for understanding and addressing the support needs of persons with mental retardation. The authors describe a new scale to measure the level or intensity of a person's support needs.

Context

The need to understand and address the support needs of persons with developmental disabilities has emerged from: (a) an ecological approach to disability that stresses the power of person-environmental interactions and the reduction of functional and activity limitations, (b) the focus on person-centered planning, which emphasizes personal choices and empowerment, and (c) the provision of services in natural environments, based on the principles of inclusion and equity. The authors present a systematic approach for support needs assessment and planning that involves identifying desirable life experiences and goals, determining the different types of support individuals need, and developing and monitoring individualized plans. A new scale to measure the intensity of support needs, the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS), was developed to provide a standardized assessment of support needs.

Methodology & Results

Thompson et al. developed the SIS through a review of relevant literature drawn from approximately 1,500 sources, the use of Q-sort methodology with 50 professionals currently working in the field of developmental disabilities, and a field test of an initial version of the scale with a diverse sample of individuals with developmental disabilities. The eight support areas that emerged were home living, community living, education/training, employment, health and safety, behavioral, social, and protection and advocacy. The SIS measures the frequency, duration, and type of support needed to accomplish multiple life activities within each area. Forty-six raters from nine states piloted the SIS with 97 individuals with whom they worked. Item analyses supported the reliability and content validity of SIS subscales. The criterion-related validity of the scale was examined by comparing SIS scores to ratings by professionals of their clients' support needs in the eight areas assessed by the SIS subscales. The findings provided support for the criterion-related validity of seven of the eight subscales. SIS scores were also examined by looking at the subscales' intercorrelations, the intercorrelation of the SIS subscales with estimates of support needs in different content areas, and comparisons of SIS scores with composite scores from the ICAP, a popular adaptive behavior scale. Converging evidence for the construct validity of the SIS was evident, providing strong justification for the continued development of the instrument.

Significance

The assessment and planning approach presented in this article provides a means to assess the life goals of the individuals as well as support needed for accomplishment of those goals, and enables the development of individualized plans that can lead to a higher quality of life for persons with developmental disabilities. The SIS is concise enough to be completed in an acceptable amount of time, yet broad enough to meet the needs of a variety of mental health constituencies. A potential application of aggregate SIS scores includes more efficient allocation of public resources to meet individual needs through objective identification and measurement of support needs.

Source

Thompson, J. R., Hughes, C., Schalock, R. L., Silverman, W., Tassé, M. J., Bryant, B., Craig, E., & Campbell, E. M. (2002). Integrating supports in assessment and planning. Mental Retardation, 40, 390-405.