The Quality of Life Supports Model: Twenty-Five Years of Parallel Paths Have Come Together

Abstract

The article presents the operational conjunction of the quality of life and supports paradigms in the new Quality of Life Supports Model (QOLSM) that integrates significant characteristics of the current transformation in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. These characteristics encompass a holistic and integrated approach, an approach focused on the human and legal rights of people with disabilities, eligibility for services and supports based on significant limitations in major areas of life activity, an emphasis on supports provided within inclusive community settings, and outcome assessment. The objectives of this article are to describe and indicate: (a) the four elements of the MOCA (fundamental values, individual and family quality of life domains, support systems and facilitating conditions); (b) how the MOCA can be used as a framework for the provision of supports, person-centered outcome assessment, organizational transformation and systems change; and (c) how MOCA is essential to the current paradigm shift in the field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.