Customizing your plan
A good environmental support plan builds on a good assessment. Doing such an assessment involves two important steps:
Step 1: Determining relative’s type and level of functioning
First determine your relative's:
- Type of executive functioning--whether they are more on the "trouble staying organized" side or more on the "trouble getting started" side
- Level of functioning (minor challenges or major difficulties).
This will tell you the types of strategies that will work best with them. If the person you are supporting doesn't fit exactly in a particular category, try to figure out which category they fit best.
Step 2: Knowing where to start
You’ll need to determine in what areas environmental supports are needed and how to put them in place.
If you try to do too many things at once, the person will get confused and overwhelmed. If you start with something that isn't linked to a goal the person cares about, it probably won't happen.
To understand what your relative needs, look at what he or she is doing--and not doing. We need to know what parts of the person's living situation are working and what things may need to be changed.
From the Manual