Reviewing Family Concerns and Desired Priorities

The first 10-20 minutes of the IFSP meeting are very important. During this time, the group should complete introductions, review the family's concerns and priorities and summarize the child's eligibility for free special services in the community.

Starting the Meeting With Introductions

The initial portion of an IFSP meeting should include introduction of participants and a statement of the purpose/reason for the meeting. The IFSP meeting should begin with all attending having had ample time to informally introduced themselves (while arriving), and explain the role and/or agency they represent, if in fact they have not met and/or talked previously.

Reviewing Family Concerns and Desired Priorities

The group should review and discuss the concerns and/or priorities the family has identified over the past weeks during interviews, assessments and informal contacts with the Services Coordinator, school personnel, doctors, nurses and family members. These concerns and priorities, (along with basic identifying information on page 1) could be available on page 2 of the IFSP form or another sheet of paper as the meeting begins and act as a point of reference for everyone to review.

The family should update the group about their concerns. What made them call for help one month ago may no longer be a concern since recent testing of the child and interviews have clarified the situation for the family. On the other hand, the things that didn't look quite right but seemed minor a month ago, may be a great concern now.

A family may list concerns about the child's development, therapy or future schooling. But they may also list concerns related to the family. There may be issues that get in the way of the child's optimal development or routine care at home such as safe housing, heat in the winter, transportation to doctor's appointments, other children with other needs, and parents needing some time to rest or have a break from the caregiving demands for the child with special needs.

Page 2 of the IFSP form should be discussed and completed before the group moves forward to discuss possible IFSP Outcomes. It is from these stated concerns and priorities that a family can pursue discussion about what is most important to them with the IFSP team. The family's choices for prioritized needs should be listed at the bottom of page 2 of the IFSP under the heading "Family Chosen Priorities at the time (date) will be....".

Establishing Priorities

Some families will have many concerns; some families will have only a few. Some concerns may be more important than others to the family. Carl Dunst and his colleagues (1988) distinguish between a family's stated "concerns" and their stated "needs."

Concerns, are defined as an awareness that there is a discrepancy between what is and what ought to be (by observation or opinion). It is often "what bothers me."

A Need is an individual's recognition that something exists (i.e., a resource) that will reduce the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be.

It is the Services Coordinator's and practitioners' responsibility to educate the family about resources within and outside a family that can be a possible source of support for an area of concern. This discussion should include mention of both free and for-pay services in a community and examples of resources within a family that may be considered helpful. Families can indicate both concerns and needs when meeting with Services Coordinators and practitioners.

Priorities are those needs considered to be most important/urgent because of the potential for relieving a problem, anxiety, etc. or for establishing a healthy foundation for other efforts to come. It is the family's role to decide what is a priority need after hearing from the practitioners what they believe may be important. When only the professionals on the team decide what is priority, the family may not feel any commitment or interest in the plan because it doesn't address their needs.

In order to establish the family priorities for the next year, the IFSP meeting facilitator should pursue a discussion about what the family views as most important. Some sample questions for this discussion might include:

• If I were to focus my attention on one thing for my family or child right now, what would it be?
• If we were to focus our attention on one thing for your family or child, what should it be?
• If you could change one thing about XXXXX (given situation), what would it be?
  
• If you could accomplish one or two things for the child or family this next year, what would they be?
  
• From what we know about our child's (family's) needs and abilities and the possible supports available in our family and community, what would we like to have happen/change in the next few months/year?
  
• Imagine 6 months or 1 year from now; what would you like to be different in terms of (event, situation, family life, child's abilities)?