LA VALUTAZIONE MULTIDIMENSIONALE DELLA DISABILITÀ COMPLESSA ED IL PROGETTO PERSONALIZZATO

MULTIDIMENSIONAL EVALUATION OF COMPLEX DISABILITY AND PERSONALIZED INTERVENTION PROGRAM The research project was aimed at identifying ways and tools capable of operating a multi-dimensional evaluation of the person with complex disabilities, with a view to detecting priority needs on which converging educational and assistance interventions. For this aim, we adopted the bio-psycho-social paradigm of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), issued by WHO in 2001. The final question concerns the possibility of a valid and reliable assessment of outcomes of educational and care work in favor of disabled people. __METHODOLOGY__ The research arose from the meeting with a group of about 50 educators and operators of the Centri Diurni for disability people and tried to grasp some practical problems, attributable to the issue of educational assessment and of tools needed for this purpose. From the methodological point of view the path has been guided by the tenets of participatory action research. Beside the main methodology, algorithms have been used for the analysis of operating profiles and comparison of observational data. __RESEARCH RESULTS__ The first and foremost question was aimed at investigating the possibility of an analysis of care and educational needs of the disabled person that should be methodologically reliable and carried out at a multi-dimensional level, open to the needs of the whole life aspects. The research community has been moving towards the construction of an observation form based on the ICF model that seems to be successful for capturing the different needs in a reliable manner, overcoming the self-perceptions of the professionals. The second challenge of the research concerned the possibility of giving an order to those needs, that is, to identify priorities in a way that should be based on some evidence. In this regard, the adoption of the ICF let the research identify in the concept of "functioning", the criterion on which then was built the functioning profile, based on the observational data processing, that restores an evaluation of priority, both in analytical way and through a graph of synthesis. The third issue was the most problematic because it referred to the need of making a follow-up evaluation onto the personalized intervention program (PP) which is annually defined for each guest of the Centri Diurni. This resulted in the overhaul of the planning model in use at the participating centers. The scheme of PP that the research community has produced is adherent to the multidimensional assessment carried out through observation and meets the requirements of Regione Veneto. Nevertheless, it was not possible to proceed to a rigorous evaluation of follow-up, due to the revisions that the instrument of observation has had along the way, and as well as for the changes within the research community. __FUTURE PROSPECTS__ The research has been focused on the world of adults with severe or, as we preferred to define, complex disability. It is a field still too neglected by pedagogical reflection and experimentation. The care professionals need of cultural stimuli and operational tools that support their effort to keep alive the motivation in the presence of chronic illnesses or deteriorating health of people with disabilities. The tools developed in this experience may provide a starting point for further study and research. The observation tool, in particular, may be subject to revisions also in view of a formal validation. It should, however, do not neglect the need of having tools that are not only useful but also usable, so that they have to require an investment of time and resources commensurable with the general daily work. __KEYWORDS__: ICF, SVaMDi, observation, evaluation, assessment, intervention planning, personalized intervention program, PEI, cognitive disability, intellectual disability, complex disability.