Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Try this Tuesday- Family council

This is an idea that took some time to develop, and its importance only grew on Ricki’s siblings now that she is reaching her mid-teens. First, please read THIS so I don’t have to repeat it all.
The idea is to have family members (or family/advocate friends) meet at least once yearsly to consider the following questions, and attempt to decide on interventions to be attempted. As the child enters the teen/adult years, their desires must be taken into consideration.A large part of this idea is to try and get enough people involved that it does not all fall on one person.
Now I want to share with you the actual list. It was compiled carefully, to try and be applicable to all different ages:

Status Checklist
QUESTIONS:
1. Are there any medical conditions that need attention?
-Vaccines
-Hearing test
-Thyroid test
-Heart
-Orthopedic
-Dental
-Eyes
-Psychological
-Gynecological (for adults)
-other

2. Does _________ get all the treatments/therapies that they need?

3. Is ________ in a school/work situation that:
-is good for them? (and not just “baby-sitter)
--a place that encourages _______ to progress?
-A place that maximizes _______ independence as determined by their abilities and their desires?

4. Which work/school/residential situation will __________ be in a year (or more) from now?

Place of residence:
-Is _______ happy there?-Is this place beneficial to them?-What does_______ do in their free time?

6. Are there any concerns involving transportation? Is the situation safe?

7. Does_______ have friends? Company? Community? Both “special” and “normal”?

8. Is _____ happy and in a friendly relationship with others in his/her life?
-family?
-people in their residence?
-people at school/work?
-people in community?

9. Diet/Food:
Enough? Too much? Tasty? Healthy? Safe? Does he/she have a say about food choices?

10. Does _____ have an opportunity/ desire to exercise or engage in enjoyable sport activities?

11. Are there any skills _______needs/wants to learn right now? (reading? traveling skills, hand craft, etc) How can we help _____ achieve this?

12. Is anyone hurting (physically/verbally/sexually) or threatening ____________?

13. Is _______ financial future secure? Do they need help with banking/taxes/ money management? Do they have any legal needs?

14. What are ________ dreams? Are they possible to achieve? Can we help with this?

15. How can we help ________ gain/retain a positive self-image?

16.Are _________’s spiritual needs/wants attended to?

17. Who else can we try and recruit to be a member of this support community?

Try This Tuesday

2 comments:

RivkA with a capital A said...

I am wondering if I should do this for me....

It is a little daunting....

Do you go over this list for every family member?

rickismom said...

Rivka, You don't need this, and neither does the other family members. This family council is to get Ricki's sibluings used to checking on her... and hopefully they will continue when I can no longer do it (ie when I die).