Person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs: barriers and facilitators
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs: barriers and facilitators

Sweet Melissa Leoncio Nursing student, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Anne-Marie Martin Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise the barriers to person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs

  • To read about initiatives designed to engage service users and their carers in person-centred planning

  • To acknowledge the need for practitioners to be innovative when developing person-centred plans

Over the past two decades person-centred planning has been used to support people with learning disabilities to fulfil their personal aspirations. This has been backed up by national policies that have adopted the principles of person-centredness. However, widespread barriers to the implementation of person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities have been reported and the literature suggests that implementing person-centred planning is particularly challenging for people with more complex needs.

This article discusses the findings of a literature review that explored the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs and their carers. The article identifies barriers such as limited funding and resources, challenges in accessing services and communication difficulties. It also describes initiatives that appear to have successfully engaged service users and their carers in person-centred planning. Further research is needed into the long-term effects of person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs, notably to measure its effectiveness in enhancing their quality of life, while strategies to enable them to engage in person-centred planning need to be developed.

Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2021.e2163

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@am_martin_

Correspondence

a.martin@ucc.ie

Conflict of interest

None declared

Leoncio SM, Martin A-M (2021) Person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities and complex needs: barriers and facilitators. Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2021.e2163

Published online: 28 October 2021

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