Our educational/consulting programs address the need for long term prevention based support strategies within the disability service system. We go beyond traditional behavioral support and address the increased need for more holistic, innovative, and fiscally responsible support solutions. In these days of ever shrinking budgets, agencies are struggling to afford the most qualified and experienced candidates for their management and/or direct care positions. Direct care workers are often expected to implement quality supports with less guidance and resources at their disposal. Training programs frequently get scaled back, further limiting opportunities for professional growth. Our service system must adapt to modern budgets or face the real consequences of increased turnover and ongoing crisis situations.
We provide cost-efficient expertise and guidance to agency supervisors, direct care workers, family members, and guardians. Meaningful Living offers options beyond traditional behavioral support and pharmaceutical approaches for individuals with persistent and complex issues. Our goal is to not only help individuals address specific behavioral challenges but also to help further develop the expertise and understanding of those in the individual’s life. We will improve the overburdened crisis system by providing leadership and support when individuals begin to display an increase in behavioral challenges. While there will be unavoidable situations requiring the use of crisis services, increased medications, and possibly more restrictive measures, we nevertheless decrease continued reliance on crisis focused solutions.
Our approach addresses the need for diversity in support approaches by doing the following:
- Reduce budget cut impact on the quality of support services.
- Provide information and support to those who make crucial support-related decisions.
- Address retention and turnover and their associated costs.
- Provide an alternative option for challenging or limited-success cases under the current service model, reducing costly crisis intervention and hospitalizations.
- Help families/guardians/individuals develop comprehensive and long-term goals that foster learning, growth, the development of personal value systems, and self-efficacy.
We provide novel perspectives, innovation, and a holistic approach to understanding challenging behaviors. People come to us open to new ideas about implementing support, and curious about factors contributing to challenging behavior.