Any social worker will tell you that you learn more in one home visit with a client than you can in hours spent listening to someone in an office. This is the concept behind Person-Centered Care. Seeing people who use health and social services as equal in planning, developing and monitoring care. Viewing the person, and their families at the center of decision making, knowing they are the experts who can give the professionals their recommendations and help in assessing the best overall care for that individual. 

Healthcare and social services are going to need to add flexibility and vision to make person-centered care the new normal. Working with people and their families to find the best way to provide their care. A standard that is about doing things with and for people, rather than ‘to’ them.

As a model, this can work for each individual and for the society as a whole.

The extreme cost of emergency room visits can be greatly reduced by a housing first policy. Caring for the homeless, the poor and the underinsured is a mission that many organizations see as essential to the wellness of our society. The Scan Foundation has been a champion for person-centered care creating a movement to unite Medicare & Medicaid for needy individuals and a playbook for better care. 

Beth Baker wrote in"Cookie Cutter or Cutting Edge Designing for Person-Centeredness"

"The goal of person-centeredness is captured in the phrase “nothing about me, without me."

"The antithesis of the person-centered philosophy became embedded in the culture of nursing homes. Perhaps nowhere did a mindset of standardization and regulation take hold more deeply."

This institutional thinking is outdated and inhumane. 

 ” Enlightened nursing homes that embrace a person-centered philosophy, says Carman Bowman, who trains workers for nursing homes and assisted living facilities for Edu-Catering, demonstrate that “individualized care is better, more efficient care. Personalized care also means giving residents opportunities to have meaning and purpose, despite whatever challenges landed them in the nursing home. “People want meaningful engagement, to make a difference,” she said. “My dream is that we’d have so many service projects going on that they don’t have time for bingo.”

Respect for the individual and their dignity should be the baseline for all care. Listening to a person and their family about what matters most.