Introducing Supports to a Relative

Environmental approaches can provide you with tools to make important life changes. But like any other tools, these strategies can only do so much. Much of their usefulness lies in how you use it. There is one word that should underlie all of the strategies that you use—collaboration.

This work will be most effective if you:

• Engage the person in a conversation about the project, seek their input and build on their motivation to take part
  design the plan collaboratively with extensive input from your relative
• Link the work to the person's life goals.
• Take time at the beginning to engage the person you are supporting in this project--in coming to agree about why it might be helpful and how you can work together to make it happen. This will produce much better results in the end.

Throughout this effort, the person should have the sense that you are embarking on a project together.