The Family Care Plan
What Is A Family Care Plan?
A Family Care Plan is a collection of documents, medical, educational, and legal, that can empower the family to assist and plan for the needs of the disabled individual and the family. Once an individual, adult or child, with an illness or injury become medically stable, they continue to have substantial needs. Very often, their family is left to cope and deal with the multitude of issues that come up on a day to day basis. Some families learn as the need arises, some families learn to keep one step ahead of the issues, and some families give up in frustration.
Personal Experience
In 1992, my own son at the age of 7, was struck by a vehicle and left with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. After years of going to the doctors with my son, there was a lot that I already knew, but I found out others who were involved with him didn’t know what I or others knew. There was just a breakdown in communication with my son’s condition making things very difficult.
Sometimes I would go to a doctor who would ask about what was done by another physician. I would explain what was done but many times I would be told that Doctor “A” would contact Doctor “B” before treatment would be discussed. This left me without answers or a plan. It always seemed like I was hanging by a thread without a way to get out.
The Family Care Plan (Binder)
When I was working to get my son into a group home, I needed to ensure that he had both Social Security Disability (SSD) and Medicaid. I called the Medicaid office to make an appointment. I arrived at the office about 15 minutes before the appointment time and waited, and waited, and waited.
About 1 ½ hours later I was called back to an office. This young woman pulled out a form that had to be completed. In my head I was thinking that if they had sent that to me, I could have had that completed upon arrival. Instead I answered all of her questions, and she carefully wrote them down. She then asked for specific documentation from SSD, Physicians, and Hospital Discharge Summaries. She was shocked that I could open my binder and hand her these documents. I had her make copies of them all, so I could place the originals back into the binder. The next day I had been approved and had the number I needed.
Without this information so readily available it would have taken many weeks, and I would have lost the space in that group home.
The Family Care Plan is a vital way to have all the documentation with you to assist with care and education. I can assure you that if you have this information with you, services and plans are created much faster. I used all of my son’s experience to create this plan to make a binder full of information. This binder went with me all the time.
This binder included both medical and educational information, as well as all the information a family member knows about how this individual. I made this information available for a small fee here. Simply download and sort it all into a binder for your use.
About IEP – Individual Education Plan
Later when I went to school to become a Ceritified Life Care Planner, I found out the school went by what was called an IEP, or Individual Education Plan. Your child will need an IEP to get special education services at school.
This plan is written by the teachers to direct the plan of education. Be well aware of your child’s IEP. Look carefully at the goals in it; their should be measurable goals to be defined and documented. There should be measurable goals that are able to be documented.
About FBA – Functional Behavioral Analysis
A Functional Behavioral Analysis is an individualized plan to understand each child to know behaviorally when he or she is engaged in learning or not. In my case, if you gave my son a pencil or pen and you heard him tapping the pencil, he had stopped paying attention. Many times it was 3-5 minutes into a lesson.
Parents and Care Givers know more about the child than anyone else. We know when they are listening and engaged, and we know all the behaviors of when they are not engaged. This is vital information that can assist the school. Please do not ever think that as a parent you are not a vital part of the education and medical plan.