Meaningful
Life
What is it?
The Meaningful Life model entails our colleagues working closely with the people we support and their families, to agree and describe what a meaningful life and fulfilling future could look like for them.
Every young person has an individualised plan with bespoke goals that span home and school life to encourage maintenance and generalisation of skills.
A therapeutically informed approach is Kisimul’s golden thread to enabling meaningful lives for individuals accessing our services. It is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between therapeutic, education, and residential professionals to support and enhance the physical, mental, emotional, and social wellbeing of the individuals we support.
Key to our Meaningful Life model is an integrated approach to ensure that therapeutic approaches are embedded consistently within a person’s daily life, across all settings.
Why is it important?
Traditionally when supporting people with complex needs and associated behaviours of concern, the focus was on modification of behaviour. Outcomes tended to focus on alignment with societal expectations, rather than what is truly meaningful and motivating for a person.
Recent neuroscience and psychology research shows that emotional regulation can be better supported through trusted interactions with colleagues, rather than rewards and consequences. The individuals we support learn from those with whom they have strong attachments. Therefore, by training and supporting all our colleagues in education and care in therapeutic interactions, the people we support receive consistent, person-centred care that leads to more meaningful outcomes.
How is it implemented?
Our Meaningful Life model is designed to create stronger relationships between colleagues and the people we support. Our residential support workers are upskilled to become Life Practitioners who provide consistent, therapeutically informed support in all settings. Our teaching assistants are now Learning Practitioners who ensure that all learning opportunities are aligned to the goals and ambitions of the individual.
Service Development Practitioners work closely with education and residential staff to support their development through training, and ongoing coaching and mentoring. This team provides dynamic and responsive support to education and care colleagues to assist them in translating their training into practice.
The Meaningful Life model integrates everyone that is important in a person’s life to put them at the centre of all decision making and planning, and ultimately, to enable that person to lead a meaningful, productive, and happy life.
