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Florida Self-Directed Care (SDC) is an innovative
service delivery paradigm placing individuals with mental illnesses
squarely at the center of
decision-making that affects them. SDC was conceived in
Jacksonville, Florida in early 2000, from a grass-roots effort. A
group of dedicated
self and systems advocates came together around the belief that
there had to be a better road to recovery than found in traditional
treatment
modalities. From this journey, SDC was born. The original program
covers a five-county area in NE Florida, and has served over 150
people since 2002. The success of the NE Florida program has
led to the creation of a second program, serving five counties in
Southwest Florida. The website you are exploring is a product of the
SW Florida SDC program. The website associated with the original SDC
program is currently under revision, and will be linked here as soon
as ‘renovations’ are completed.
The FloridaSDC Program
hinges on the belief that individuals are capable of choosing services and
making purchases that will help them begin or remain on the road to
recovery and to develop or regain a life of meaningful, productive
activity. The goal of FloridaSDC is to respect and promote
self-determination, recovery and full community inclusion for people who
have been diagnosed with a mental illness and who depend on government
subsidized mental wellness services. Participants in FloridaSDC select the
providers, services, and activities that they deem necessary for recovery
and the achievement of the highest level of desired personal wellness and
quality of life. Through a careful self-assessment of previous purchases,
experiences, and outcomes, individuals are given the flexibility to make
adjustments to fit their needs in order to engage in meaningful activities
and to attain a higher quality of life.
The FloridaSDC program gives each participant control of the public
financial resources to access mental health services that are normally
directly contracted to a public community mental health provider.
FloridaSDC participants can use their budgets to purchase mental wellness
services from any member of the FloridaSDC Network that provides services
within the district in which the participant resides. The primary purpose
of these funds is to purchase psychiatric and mental wellness care.
However, a unique option within the program is the opportunity for
participants to access alternative and non-traditional services that
result in the same outcomes as traditional mental health services. For
example, instead of attending psychotherapy group for depression at a
local mental health professional’s office, a FloridaSDC participant may
elect to participate in a community-based support group. The personal
outcomes are similar, but the type of actual service is very different,
both in cost and experience. FloridaSDC also offers participants
match-funding opportunities to purchase tangible items, such as clothes
and shoes that will enhance the person’s integration into the community so
that he or she can return to work or other meaningful activity.
Participants in the FloridaSDC program choose from a variety of
community-based providers that may or may not already be a part of the
current public community mental health system. Residential and crisis
stabilization services are delivered by existing community mental health
providers through the traditional delivery system. Participants are
responsible for determining exactly which community-based services they
want and by whom these services will be provided. Participant recovery is
measured in a number ways including productive days in the community
(productive as defined by each individual) and structured self-reports
about achievement of personal recovery goals and objectives. Standard
objective measures are used to evaluate individual outcomes that will
include input from significant others and life coaches. The major
difference in measurements between FloridaSDC and the traditional system
is the focus on participant self-reports about personal recovery
achievement and satisfaction with the total FloridaSDC delivery system.
Why does FloridaSDC work?
The FloridaSDC model utilizes self-determination at each point in the
service delivery process. People participating in mental health services
have guided the development of this program through the development of
forms for reporting and planning, creation of operational policies and
procedures, and expansion of the provider network. As a result, there is
confidence that the model reflects the values and priorities of
participants and enhances the ability of each to live and interact as
independently as possible, enjoy an improved quality of life, and
demonstrate successful outcomes.
The ultimate goal of the FloridaSDC Program is to give Participants the
opportunity to design and travel a personalized road to recovery from the
adverse effects of mental illness so that they can return to a productive
lifestyle. A productive lifestyle is legislatively defined, for purposes
of this program, as achieving a state of mental wellness so that a person
can return to work and begin to generate earned income through
employment.
The approach to providing services is participant-driven and seeks to
maximize each participant's ability to control the most important
decisions about how he or she will manage his/her own personal recovery.
“Participant” is used throughout the rest of this document to emphasize
that individuals who enroll in the program are contributing participants
to the program. The FloridaSDC program encourages individuals to learn to
live life as fully, independently, and productively as possible and to
take responsibility for their choices and the consequences of these
choices. FloridaSDC seeks to decrease, and, in some cases, eliminate
patterns of participant dependency on formal systems of care and to
promote participant self-control and self-efficacy and use of natural and
community supports. The goal of FloridaSDC is to promote each
participant’s ability to set and achieve personal mental wellness and
productivity goals, thereby enhancing each participant’s quality of life.
Participants will have the opportunity to increase their strengths within
many components of life.
The program abides by the philosophy that natural supports should be
identified and utilized by the individual as a first choice. Natural
supports create an opportunity for individuals to feel greater autonomy
and to integrate into the community. Community supports are identified and
utilized in a way that truly involves individuals in the community at
large and helps them to feel like they belong to the environment in which
they live. Helping individuals have meaningful lives is a large part of
recovery in mental health. The FloridaSDC program staff work with
individuals in a cooperative relationship and act as coaches rather than
experts. The FloridaSDC program is dedicated to listening to individuals’
specified needs and preferences rather than imposing values upon
participants.
The FloridaSDC program is a model in which public funding follows the
participant rather than the provider. Also, it is a program in which the
individual (instead of the provider) makes decisions and selections to the
greatest extent possible with respect to service provision. Accordingly,
the following components are included in the program to maximize the
principle of participant self-determination.
Recovery: In its simplest form recovery can be defined as improving,
mending, healing and renewal. Recovery is about developing individual’s
strengths and assets and giving individual’s the room, support and
confidence to do so in the process. Recovery is about overcoming the
adverse effects of mental illness that may have hampered the ability to
fulfill personal life goals.
Choice: Choice is the ability and opportunity to select between
alternatives, to have a say in the choice made, and to have options.
Choice does not mean that a person can have anything he or she wants, but
gives a person at least two options to choose from which gives the person
a sense of control so that he or she may become more invested in attaining
personally defined goals.
Responsibility: Responsibility is taking accountability for one’s choices
and behaviors. In order to have responsibility people must be treated as
if they can be responsible. Responsibility involves accepting that one
makes good and sometimes not so good selections. Taking responsibility for
mistakes does not make a person a failure but a true learner. Likewise,
taking responsibility for triumphs and other accomplishments serves as
positive support especially when shared with others. Learning from
anything often requires non-judgmental and honest feedback from others
combined with thinking of options for the next time.
Accountability: Accountability is much like responsibility in that a
person understands that he or she is accountable for the selections made
and not made. Accountable adults accept they are human but do not make
excuses when they know they have done something wrong. Accountable adults
understand the difference between having limits due to having chronic
mental illness symptoms and blaming things they can control and improve
upon due to their mental illness. Recovery is about looking at the
holistic picture and especially on focusing on strengths that individuals
have as opposed to limits they cannot control.
Control: Control for our purposes is about helping individuals identify
the things they can control, i.e., personal goals, hopes and dreams, and
things they have no control over, i.e., how other people act or think.
Control in recovery is about developing and accomplishing goals, while
knowing human beings cannot control everything.
Self-Determination: Self-determination stems from the ability to
believe in personal control, accountability, selections and
responsibility. Self-determination and free will come from the feelings
and practices that success is possible, regardless of the odds. The more
chances human beings are given to succeed through a focus on personal
strengths and positive feedback about personal accomplishments, no matter
how small to someone else, the more likely that self-determination will
develop as a foundation.
Self-Directed: Self-directed is a concept in the recovery process which
treats individuals as capable of making and determining their purposes and
goals. Self-direction is encouraged and supported by people who work with
individuals. Individuals are engaged in discussions regarding their
capabilities and strengths therefore helping the individual see hope and
possibilities. Individuals can gain a sense of independence by determining
their life’s direction. [Operational Policies & Procedures
For The Florida Self-Directed Care (FloridaSDC) Program Revised July
2007]
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT
OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT: No person
shall, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex,
age, or disability be excluded from participation in, be denied the
benefits of, or be subjected to unlawful discrimination under any
program or activity receiving or benefiting from federal financial
assistance and administered by the Department. To file a complaint,
alleging violations of this policy, contact the Office of Civil
Rights, Florida Department of Children and Families, 1317 Winewood
Boulevard, Building 6, Room 124, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0700 or
call 1-850-487-1901, Suncom 277-1901, or TDD 1-850-922-9220. | 
