Aging is a natural part of life. There is nothing we, as humans, can do to avoid getting older. There are certain products and services that claim they can delay this inevitable process; however, most of them are not reliable and do not truly keep you from aging. 

Just because it’s unavoidable, it does not mean that it has to be dreaded. In fact, many elderly people claim that these latter years of their lives are some of the best times of their lives since they finally get to experience everything that they did not have time for when they were younger and preoccupied with work and raising children. 

Colin and Elliot Newton facilitated over 50 EPs and SEN practitioners in Bristol to create a shared vision and plan for increasing inclusion and the use of person centred planning processes across the city. This was part of a 4 session course on person centred planning.

Colin and Elliot Newton launch a series of 4 workshops with 60 EP and SEN colleagues in Bristol on person centred planning featuring the use of PATH. Wonderful and moving engagement and lots of full inclusion talk! 

Start of series of 3 online sessions using Teams platform with 50 plus EPs and SEN services from Wolverhampton. Colin and Elliot Newton kicked off the first session!

Bringing home your special needs newborn baby will certainly be a daunting prospect. For some support and advice for getting it right, read on…

‘All babies need and deserve a big welcome whatever struggles they may have ahead. Noone can prophecy the future of any child and no parent needs to be made to feel their child is less valuable than others’.

Micheline Mason – ‘Dear Parents’ (2008)

Bringing home a newborn baby is a difficult time for any parent, and new challenges arise altogether when your baby has special needs. The welcome from the medical world, family and friends is likely to be complicated by feelings of pity, shame, fear and negativity. Most parents of disabled children what the same hopeful and joyful welcome as everyone else! The cards, the balloon, the cake…

Getting older comes with a very frightening and daunting set of challenges. However, as a society, we tend to overlook the challenges faced by the individual (the person who is living through the getting older part), and focus on the issues related to those around them. These are the issues we have both as individuals (now I need to take care of them too) and as a society (how much will it now cost to care for this person who can no longer contribute).

Sadly, this is not an approach we can change in our lifetime. However, that should by no means mean we shouldn’t do our best to facilitate a shift, as much as is in our power.

One of the first steps in empowering and enabling seniors to continue living their best lives is person-centered planning.