Essential Lifestyle Planning (also known as ELP) is an excellent planning tool to use when getting to know someone. It is a useful tool to begin with when very little is known about an individual.

An ELP should clearly outline specific details that must or must not happen to make life at least tolerable for an individual. An ELP should be continually updated and reviewed in order to continue to collect and share information with individuals that are working closely in the support network and most importantly ensure the individual lives the life that makes most sense to them.

Examples of when ELP is particularly useful:

• When very little is known about an individual, for example, if an individual has
  lived in an institution or a number of different services.
  
  
• For individuals who do not communicate verbally or when individuals find it difficult to communicate detailed direction.
  
  
• When an individual has high support needs which may involve a number of different staff members working closely on a day to day basis.
  
  
• If there is a new member of staff joining a team.
  
  
• Invaluable when an individual is moving to a new environment.

ELP is not designed to directly explore dreams or future, although a skilled facilitator would build this on as an additional section to explore these areas. Alternatively an individual can suggest using other more visual tool like Path or Map if appropriate.