The overall goal of the proposed project will be to develop, produce, and test a video training program that simplifies the future planning and paces the instruction using the stages of change model. The instructional program is targeted to older parents who have adult children with developmental disabilities living with them. Other users include local Arcs (formerly The Association for Retarded Citizens) and county case management MR/DD (Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) service delivery systems. Instruction will use competency-based strategies that integrate the use of stages of change, social cognitive theory, video instruction, and suggested family activities. The basis for the proposed approach derives from Social Cognitive Theory and the Stages of Motivational Readiness for Change Model. The completed program will consist of a series of five training modules: 1) Building My Lifebook, 2) The Future Planning Process, 3) Gathering information, 4) Putting your plans into action, and 5) Keeping information current. The research component of this project is designed to demonstrate that the Life History Album kit and videos will be used by parents of developmentally disabled adults to begin to produce a Life History Album (LHA) and that after using these materials parents will have advanced along the stages of change towards undertaking and establishing permanency plans for their adult children. We intend to use a two-group (Control/Intervention) pre-posttest design with measurements at multiple (3) time points. We will be testing the effectiveness of the LHA in motivating parents to undertake permanency planning against one of the most common handbooks available on this subject, the Family Handbook on Future Planning produced by the Arc.
