One Page Profile
This is a tool that is very important to us at Real Life Choices Disability Support Services and we make sure at the first meeting we involve your circle of supports to gather this information.
A One Page Profile is a short introduction to a person, which captures key information on a single page which gives for example family friends or staff an understanding of the person and how best to support them. It is not a person centred plan more a “beginners guide”.
The profile records detailed specific statements which can be developed through the use of other person centred tools like the important to – important for tool. A person may have more than one profile depending on the purpose of the profile. They may have one which identifies what staff needs to know about them when they are at home but another for what people would need to know if that person went into hospital.
The One Page Profile typically consists of a photo and three questions, but there are also other formats depending on the purpose of the profile.
The Questions Are:
What is ‘important to’ the person and embraces the important people, places, possessions, rituals, routines, faith culture, interests, hobbies, work etc. which makes the person who they are.
What do other people like and admire about the person? This can be collected by asking other people, sending them prepared postcards (3 things I like and admire about you..) for feedback or collecting these statements at the beginning of a review meeting in a circle of support on a poster.
It is very important to collect specific statement on how to best support the person. What kind of support is really helpful for the person? What does the person want and need? What kind of support does the person enjoy?
A One Page Profile is good to use to prepare transitions e.g. a child going into a day nursery, kindergarten or new school, an adult starting a new job or moving to an own apartment where he gets personal assistance or an old person moving into an old peoples’ home.
Teams can use a One Page Profile to inform each other what it is important to them about their work and in life, to exchange what they like and admire about each other in the team and how to best support the person.
One page profiles are the starting point to gathering person centred information. They need to be reviewed and updated regularly. This can be done with the working and not working tool and an action plan created to address any issues. This may require using further tools to build into a person centred description of the person.
