A tool to help meet a person’s needs

In bulletin 14, we looked at a tool that can help people think about:

  • important needs that everyone has

  • if supports are meeting a person’s needs.

This tool is called ‘Understanding Me’.

In this bulletin, we look closely at 2 parts of this tool.

Understanding a person’s needs

Everyone has needs.

For example, the need to feel:

  • connected to other people
  • good about yourself.

People can live good lives when their needs are met.

You need to get to know someone well to understand their needs.

This includes working closely with the people who know them best.

You can get to know someone by:

  • asking questions

  • listening to what they have to say

  • talking together about different ideas

  • being open to their ideas and experiences.

This will help you understand what supports someone:

  • wants
  • needs.

You can also think about parts of someone’s life to understand their needs.

For example, their health.

A person’s behaviour can show if their environment isn’t supporting what they need.

You can think about:

  • what someone’s needs are
  • if their needs are being met.

For example, you can think about what the person needs so they can understand how to do something.

You can also think about the person’s senses.

Your senses include your:

  • touch
  • hearing
  • sight.

For example, you can think about if the environment is too loud for the person.

You can also think about if the person needs more choice and control.

You can think about how the person connects with other people.

Thinking about these things can help to understand a person’s needs.

Providing supports to meet a person’s needs

You can use the ‘Understanding Me’ tool to:

  • explore how to support someone

  • write down what supports they might need.

When you understand someone’s needs you can give them the right supports.

You can think about:

  • what the person communicates to you about supports that are important to them

  • who will provide the supports.

You can also think about what supports:

  • work well

  • don’t work well.

Understanding what someone needs can help you plan the right supports for them.

When you provide supports that meets someone’s needs you can support them to live a good life.

This means they won’t need to use behaviour to show something is wrong.

This also means providers might not use restrictive practices.

You can visit our website to learn more about the ‘Understanding Me’ tool.