Make a Plan for the Days When You Can’t Explain What You Need

What Is a Care Plan?

Think of it as:

An instruction manual for being you.

Not because you're a machine.

And definitely not because somebody else should get to control you.

A good care plan communicates things like:

This is what I'm like when I'm okay.

This is how you'll know I'm starting to struggle.

This is what overwhelm looks like for me.

This behavior probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

This is how I communicate when words get hard.

These things usually help.

Please, for the love of God, do not do these things.

Here's what to check when I don't know what I need.

Here's what a crisis looks like.

Here's who to call.

Here's what my medical conditions look like when they flare.

Here's how I want conflict handled.

And if I can't effectively advocate for myself, here's what I want you to know.

Your care plan externalizes information that otherwise has to live entirely in your head.

This Isn’t Just a Crisis Plan

Crisis plans matter.

But this Care Plan starts much earlier.

Because the best time to figure out what helps during a meltdown isn't necessarily during the meltdown.

The system looks at the entire spectrum:

Doing Well → Stressed → Overwhelmed → Crisis

What changes?

What disappears first?

What becomes harder?

What can someone else notice?

What helps at each stage?

And most importantly:

Can we intervene while the problem is still small?

Sometimes the difference between an awful night and a manageable one isn't a revolutionary coping skill.

It's noticing at 4 p.m. that you're hungry, dehydrated, overstimulated, in pain, haven't taken your medication, and have agreed to three more things than your brain can currently process.

The Blank Care Plan

You don't have to invent the structure yourself.

The Blank Personal Care Plan Template walks you through creating your own plan using detailed prompts, checklists, examples, and spaces for customization.

Build it for yourself.

Build one collaboratively with a partner.

Help a friend make theirs.

Use it with a client, where appropriate to your role and scope.

Make a short version.

Make an enormous one.

Ignore sections that don't apply.

Go absolutely feral with the highlighter.

The point is to make a document that actually reflects the person using it.

Get the Blank Care Plan Template →

Start With a Quick Reference

Your first pages shouldn't require someone to read your autobiography before they can help you.

The Care Plan begins with a quick-reference section covering information such as:

Preferred name • Pronouns • Emergency contacts • Important medical information • Communication needs • What I'm like when I'm doing well • What struggling looks like • Common misunderstandings • What helps • What to avoid • Who to contact • When to get additional help • Emergency instructions

Then the rest of the plan explains those things in detail.

It's designed so someone can get the basics in a few minutes and go deeper when they need to.

“People Think I’m Angry When I’m Actually Overwhelmed.”

This is exactly the kind of information a care plan can capture.

Maybe:

Your silence gets interpreted as punishment.

Your tone gets interpreted as anger.

Your pacing gets interpreted as agitation.

Your lack of eye contact gets interpreted as disrespect.

Your withdrawal gets interpreted as rejection.

Your increased joking gets interpreted as being fine.

Your irritability gets interpreted as hostility when you're actually in severe pain.

Your inability to answer gets interpreted as refusing to communicate.

Your plan can explain:

What people see.

and

What it actually means.

Sometimes that distinction can prevent an enormous amount of unnecessary conflict.

Create an “Understanding Me” Guide

The template walks you through what support looks like across different states.

When I’m Doing Well

How do I normally communicate?

What routines am I maintaining?

What does independence look like?

How can people support me without micromanaging me?

When I’m Stressed

What changes first?

What demands can be reduced?

Do I need reassurance, prioritization, rest, or practical help?

When I’m Overwhelmed

Are open-ended questions becoming impossible?

Do I need less sensory input?

Do conversations need to wait?

During Shutdown

Can I still text?

Would writing work?

Do I need someone to sit quietly nearby?

Do I need everyone to please stop asking me what’s wrong every 45 seconds?

During Anxiety or Panic

Do I want grounding?

Reassurance?

Space?

Touch?

Medication?

Distraction?

During Depression

How does someone know I’m isolating beyond my normal amount?

What basic tasks disappear?

What kind of contact helps?

During Burnout

What needs to stop?

What expectations need to change?

What helps recovery rather than demanding more productivity?

During Physical Pain or Exhaustion

What can someone take off my plate?

What symptoms need attention?

Do I need mobility support?

When I’m Sensory Seeking

Movement?

Pressure?

Music?

Strong flavors?

Stimming?

When I’m Sensory Avoiding

Quiet?

Darkness?

Headphones?

Fewer people?

Absolutely nobody unexpectedly touching me?

During Decision Fatigue

Don't ask:

“What do you want for dinner?”

Try:

“Soup, sandwich, or should I choose?”

Sometimes support isn't doing more.

It's making the cognitive load smaller.

The Communication Guide

Because “just communicate” is terrible advice if nobody explains how.

A major section of the Care Plan is devoted entirely to communication.

You'll work out:

How people should check in with you

How frequently you like check-ins

Whether you prefer direct or gentle communication

How much processing time you need

What happens to your communication under stress

What alternative communication methods work

How people can tell you need space

Which questions are easiest to answer

Which questions make your brain completely freeze

Whether touch helps

Whether eye contact helps

Whether conversation helps

Whether silence helps

How difficult conversations should be approached

What reassurance actually works

How someone should reconnect after giving you space

And even:

How will someone know their support is working?

Maybe you start joking again.

Maybe you can answer more complicated questions.

Maybe your body relaxes.

Maybe you start making decisions.

Maybe you ask for food.

Those tiny signs matter.

Build Backup Communication for When Words Stop Working

Maybe verbal communication becomes difficult when you're overwhelmed.

Your plan can identify alternatives such as:

Texting

Writing

Notes apps

Communication cards

AAC

Emoji responses

Number scales

Green / Yellow / Orange / Red

Thumbs up/down

Pointing

Hand signals

You don't need to suddenly become excellent at spoken emotional communication while having the worst day of your month.

Build another route.

The Green / Yellow / Orange / Red System

One of the core tools in the Care Plan is a personalized distress scale.

🟢 Green — My Normal Range

Green doesn't mean perfectly healthy or symptom-free.

It means:

I'm generally managing.

What does that look like for you?

How much are you socializing?

What routines are intact?

What does your normal energy look like?

🟡 Yellow — Something Is Starting to Slip

This is often where intervention is easiest.

Maybe you're:

More irritable.

Sleeping worse.

Cancelling plans.

Forgetting things.

Masking harder.

Procrastinating more.

Having increased pain.

Becoming more sensitive to sensory input.

What can you change now before Yellow becomes Orange?

🟠 Orange — I’m Overwhelmed

Your resources are running out.

Communication gets harder.

Executive function disappears.

Everything takes more effort.

Maybe you need:

Yes/no questions • Reduced stimulation • Fewer demands • Food • Medication • Help prioritizing • Comfort items • Rest • Difficult conversations postponed

🔴 Red — Crisis

Your normal coping strategies aren't enough.

This section connects directly to your personalized Safety / Red Alert Plan.

Instead of asking supporters to invent a crisis response while everyone is scared:

You already wrote one.

“I Don’t Know What’s Wrong.”

Open the Distress Checklist.

Sometimes you genuinely don't know.

So the Care Plan includes a systematic check of:

Food & Hydration

Have I eaten?

Had water?

Do I need electrolytes?

Would a safe food be easier?

Sleep & Rest

Am I physically tired?

Mentally exhausted?

Do I need sleep or simply no-input rest?

Pain & Medical Needs

Medication?

Pain?

Temperature?

Position?

A symptom I’ve been ignoring?

Hygiene & Body Needs

Bathroom?

Shower?

Clean clothes?

Teeth?

Basic body care?

Sensory Input

Too much?

Too little?

Emotions

Sad?

Angry?

Afraid?

Lonely?

Ashamed?

Grieving?

Numb?

No fucking clue?

That’s an option too.

Cognitive Load

Brain fog?

Decision fatigue?

Rumination?

Everything feels urgent?

Social Needs

Alone?

Quiet company?

A hug?

Parallel play?

Someone to listen?

Practical help?

Environment

Would going home solve 40% of the problem?

Responsibilities

What can wait?

What can someone else do?

What’s the smallest next step?

You don’t have to intuitively identify the answer.

Work the problem.

Build a Comfort Menu

A Comfort Menu isn’t simply:

Things That Make Me Happy™

It’s a collection of interventions, accommodations, activities, and supports that can help regulate or restore you.

Your menu can include categories like:

Comfort
Blankets, tea, plushies, routines, medications, water.

Sensory Regulation
Headphones, temperature changes, fidgets, movement, compression, music.

Co-Regulation
Quiet company, reassurance, physical touch, stories, familiar people.

Food
Safe foods, small meals, electrolytes, meal preparation.

Rest
Reduced input, sleep routines, eyes-closed audio, permission to stop.

Cognitive Rest
Brain dumps, decision help, one-task rules, putting worries somewhere for later.

Emotional Support
Feelings wheels, journaling, self-compassion, permission to cry.

Creative Rest
Art, music, makeup, fashion, crafts, writing.

Spiritual Care
Nature, ritual, prayer, gratitude, spiritual practice.

Practical Support
Calendar checks, prioritization, preparing for tomorrow, offloading responsibilities.

Then when someone asks:

“What can I do?”

you have an actual menu.

Support for Chronic Illness & Disability

Some people need another layer.

The template includes an optional Medical Support section for chronically ill, disabled, and medically complicated people.

This section isn’t a replacement for medical care.

It’s a personalized reference for the people who support you.

You can document:

Important diagnoses • Medications • Rescue medications • Allergies • Mobility aids • Baseline symptoms • Common flares • What usually helps • What makes symptoms worse • When your normal plan isn’t enough • When outside medical help is appropriate

The template includes customizable starting points for areas such as:

Joint instability and hypermobility

POTS / dysautonomia-type flares

Allergic or mast-cell-type symptoms

GI flares

Migraine and neurological symptoms

Fatigue and post-exertion crashes

Sleep problems

Then you personalize them based on your own healthcare plan and clinician guidance.

Create a High / Medium / Low Capacity Plan

Not every day has the same number of spoons.

Instead of expecting yourself to maintain your highest level of functioning every day, you can create different plans.

High Capacity

What can I reasonably do?

What keeps me stable?

Medium Capacity

What should be prioritized?

What support becomes useful?

Low Capacity

What is actually essential?

What can be paused?

What should someone else take over?

A low-capacity plan means you don’t have to decide whether you’re “failing.”

You’re following the plan for the capacity you actually have.

Relationships Need Care Plans Too

Your Care Plan can also explain how you want conflict handled.

Not:

“Nobody is ever allowed to disagree with me.”

But:

“Here’s how we have a disagreement without making everything ten times worse.”

You’ll explore:

How concerns should be brought up

When difficult conversations should happen

When they absolutely should not

What communication helps

What makes conflict escalate

How to know when you need a break

How to pause without abandoning the issue

What accountability means to you

What makes an apology meaningful

How you rebuild trust

How you reconnect after conflict

Sometimes:

“Can we talk about something difficult?”

works much better than launching into the issue while someone is half-asleep, hungry, overstimulated, and trying to put on their shoes.

Know When to Pause

Your plan helps identify signs that productive communication has stopped.

Maybe you’re:

Dissociating

Crying uncontrollably

Unable to speak

Repeating yourself

Unable to process information

Entering a meltdown or panic attack

Maybe the other person is escalating.

Maybe both of you are simply talking in circles.

The plan can establish ahead of time:

How do we pause?

How long?

Who reconnects?

When are we coming back?

What does “I need a break” actually mean?

Because taking a break from conflict and abandoning conflict aren’t the same thing.

Make the Emergency Plan Before the Emergency

The Safety & Red Alert Plan is the:

Everything Has Gone Sideways Page.

If you’re no longer able to effectively advocate for yourself, what should somebody know?

You’ll identify:

Warning signs

Safe people

People not to contact

Safe places

Coping strategies that have actually worked

Communication methods

Sensory supports

Immediate physical needs

Emergency instructions

When outside support is needed

Hospital or crisis preferences

Important medical information

What people commonly misunderstand during your crises

It removes decisions from a moment when your ability to make decisions may already be compromised.

Make Healthcare Easier Too

The Care Plan includes a section specifically designed to share with:

Doctors • Specialists • Therapists • Psychiatrists • Emergency departments • Physical therapists • Crisis clinicians • Urgent care • Other healthcare professionals

Think of it as a short personal healthcare passport.

Instead of giving someone your entire Care Plan, you can provide the information they need to work with you effectively.

That can include:

Preferred name and pronouns

Current medications

Allergies

Medical conditions

Emergency contacts

Medical baseline

Communication needs

Accessibility accommodations

Medical triggers

Helpful approaches

Things clinicians commonly misunderstand

Important history

Goals of care

Questions you don’t want to forget

And a simple:

Please Read This First

A short explanation of what someone needs to understand about you within the first 30 seconds.

What’s Included in the Blank Care Plan?

The complete template includes sections for:

• Quick Reference
• Emergency Contacts
• Understanding Me
• Doing Well
• Stress
• Overwhelm
• Shutdown
• Anxiety & Panic
• Depression
• Burnout
• Pain & Exhaustion
• Sensory Seeking
• Sensory Avoidance
• Decision Fatigue
• When I Don’t Know What I Need
• Communication Guide
• Alternative Communication
• Distress Levels
• Distress Checklist
• Comfort Menu
• Medical Support
• Capacity / Spoons Planning
• Relationship & Conflict
• Accountability & Repair
• Safety / Red Alert Plan
• Healthcare & Specialist Reference

Plus prompts, examples, checkboxes, reflection questions, and blank spaces for turning the framework into your plan.

Get the Blank Care Plan →

And There’s a Guide for Actually Making It

Because giving someone a 50-page blank template and saying:

“Have fun!”

would be an objectively terrible care-planning system.

The Guide to Making Your Care Plan walks you through the process.

You’ll learn how to:

• Decide which sections you actually need
• Start with your highest-priority information
• Identify your baseline
• Recognize early warning signs
• Separate stress from overwhelm and crisis
• Identify sensory needs
• Build a distress checklist
• Create useful comfort options
• Document communication differences
• Write instructions supporters can actually follow
• Identify medical-support needs
• Build different plans for different capacities
• Think through conflict before you’re in it
• Create an emergency plan
• Decide what healthcare providers need to know
• Test your plan with the people who may actually use it
• Update the plan as you learn more about yourself

Get the Care Plan Guide + Blank Template →

“This Is Exactly What I Need, and I Have No Idea How to Fill It Out.”

Perfectly reasonable.

Figuring out what you need is often the hard part.

Especially if you’re:

Neurodivergent.

Alexithymic.

Burned out.

Chronically ill.

Used to masking.

Used to taking care of everyone else.

Newly diagnosed.

Learning what accommodation actually feels like.

Or staring at:

“What helps when you’re overwhelmed?”

thinking:

I don’t fucking know. That’s why I’m overwhelmed.

You don’t have to figure it out alone.

Build Your Care Plan With Me

One-on-One Care Plan Coaching

I offer peer-informed coaching to help you create a personalized Care Plan.

Instead of simply filling blanks, we’ll explore:

What actually happens to you?

What do people misunderstand?

What has helped before?

What consistently makes things worse?

What happens first when you’re deteriorating?

What does your body need?

How does your communication change?

What should someone do when you can’t explain yourself?

Where do you need more autonomy rather than more help?

Then we turn those answers into something usable.

Book Care Plan Coaching →

We Can Build the Plan Together

Depending on your needs, coaching can focus on:

• Communication
• Neurodivergence
• Autistic shutdown or meltdown support
• ADHD and executive-function support
• Sensory regulation
• Burnout
• Chronic illness
• Disability
• Pain and fatigue
• Decision fatigue
• Basic-needs support
• Relationship communication
• Conflict planning
• Medical advocacy
• Crisis planning
• Support networks
• Accessibility
• Capacity planning
• Caregiver communication

Or:

“I have no idea what I need. Help me figure it out.”

That’s a valid place to start.

Make a Care Plan for Someone You Love

The template doesn’t have to be completed alone.

It can become a structured conversation between:

Partners

Friends

Chosen family

Roommates

Parents and adult children

Caregivers

Support workers

Peer-support relationships

Clients and appropriate helping professionals

Instead of waiting for a crisis to discover:

“Oh, apparently repeatedly asking them what’s wrong makes this dramatically worse,”

you can talk about it beforehand.

What does support mean to them?

When should you step in?

When should you back off?

What does consent look like around care?

What should never be assumed?

What helps them retain autonomy?

A good care plan isn’t instructions for controlling another person.

It’s instructions for supporting them without erasing them.

Want to Help Other People Build Their Own Care Plans?

Maybe you don’t only want one for yourself.

Maybe you’re the person in your community who read this and immediately thought:

We should all make these.

Excellent.

I also offer resources for people who want to facilitate care-plan creation for others.

This can work especially well for:

• Peer-support groups
• Queer and trans organizations
• Neurodivergent communities
• Disability groups
• Mutual-aid networks
• Community centers
• Support groups
• Coaches
• Educators
• Caregivers
• Student organizations
• Chosen families
• Community workshops

You don’t need to tell people what their care plan should say.

You create the structure that helps them figure it out.

Host a Care Plan Creation Workshop

Give people the time, prompts, structure, and support to write the instructions they wish other people already knew.

A Care Plan Creation Workshop can guide participants through questions like:

• What does “doing well” actually look like for me?
• What changes first when I’m struggling?
• What do people misunderstand about me?
• What questions can I answer when overwhelmed?
• What sensory accommodations help?
• What makes things worse?
• What does Yellow look like before I reach Orange?
• What’s on my Comfort Menu?
• Who are my safe people?
• How should somebody support me during conflict?
• What should happen during a crisis?
• What do I wish doctors understood about me?

Participants leave with more than information about care plans.

They leave having begun to make one.

Get the Care Plan Workshop Kit

For facilitators who want to run their own Care Plan Creation session, I offer a workshop resource package built from the same framework.

The facilitator materials can help you move from:

“We should host something about care plans.”

to:

“Here is the workshop.”

The kit is designed to support a structured, participant-centered session rather than requiring facilitators to invent the curriculum themselves.

It can include:

Facilitator Guide
A structure for guiding participants through the care-planning process.

Participant Care Plan Template
A blank plan participants can continue developing during and after the workshop.

Workshop Worksheets
Focused exercises for communication, distress levels, support needs, comfort menus, and crisis planning.

Discussion Prompts
Questions designed to help participants identify needs they may never have explicitly considered.

Workshop Structure
A suggested order, pacing, breaks, and opportunities for individual reflection and group discussion.

Accessibility Guidance
Ideas for making participation easier for neurodivergent, disabled, chronically ill, and overwhelmed participants.

Facilitation Considerations
Guidance around privacy, autonomy, opting out, emotional topics, and avoiding pressure to disclose personal information publicly.

Get the Care Plan Workshop Kit →

You Don’t Have to Be Someone’s Therapist to Help Them Think

A care-plan workshop shouldn’t involve the facilitator diagnosing participants or deciding what they need.

Your role is to ask better questions.

Instead of:

“You should put weighted blankets on your plan.”

try:

“When you’re overwhelmed, does pressure feel regulating, uncomfortable, or does it depend?”

Instead of:

“Your emergency contact should be your parent.”

ask:

“Who actually stays calm and respects your choices when something goes wrong?”

Instead of:

“Everyone needs someone with them during a crisis.”

ask:

“Does another person’s presence help you regulate, or can it increase your distress?”

The workshop framework is built around:

Curiosity rather than assumptions.

Learn How to Facilitate the Workshop With Me

Care Plan Facilitator Coaching

If you want to host a Care Plan Creation Workshop but aren’t sure how to actually run one, I can help you prepare.

Facilitator coaching can cover:

• Planning the workshop
• Choosing which sections to teach
• Timing
• Creating an accessible environment
• Introducing care plans
• Guiding reflection
• Facilitating discussion
• Handling different communication styles
• Supporting people without taking over
• Privacy and consent
• Managing emotionally difficult material
• Building in breaks
• Helping participants who get stuck
• Adapting the workshop for your community
• Establishing scope and boundaries
• Preparing resources
• Practicing your facilitation

Book Facilitator Coaching →

Adapt the Workshop to Your Community

Not every group needs the same Care Plan.

A workshop for autistic adults may spend much more time on:

Communication • Sensory needs • Shutdowns • Meltdowns • Masking • Executive function

A chronic-illness group may emphasize:

Capacity • Flares • Medical support • Mobility • Pain • Post-exertion recovery

A queer community organization might focus on:

Chosen family • Identity • Autonomy • Emergency contacts • Community support

A caregiver workshop may emphasize:

Supporting without controlling • Recognizing warning signs • Communication • Consent around care

A mental-health peer-support group may spend more time on:

Distress levels • Crisis planning • Coping strategies • Safe people • Reconnection

I can help you adapt the framework without requiring every participant to squeeze themselves into the same template.

Want to Help Someone One-on-One?

The facilitator resources can also support structured individual care-plan creation, not only workshops.

If your role appropriately includes this kind of support, the framework can help you guide someone through:

Understanding their baseline

Identifying early warning signs

Recognizing unmet needs

Creating communication accommodations

Building a Comfort Menu

Planning for different capacities

Documenting support preferences

Creating a crisis plan

Preparing healthcare accommodations

The principle stays the same:

You’re not writing a plan about someone.

You’re helping them create a plan that belongs to them.

Four Ways to Use the Care Plan System

1. Make One Yourself

Care Plan Guide + Blank Template

For people who want to work independently.

Learn the framework, complete the prompts, and create your own personalized plan.

Get the DIY Care Plan →

2. Make One With Me

One-on-One Care Plan Coaching

For people who want help identifying needs, working through questions, and turning their answers into a practical plan.

Book Care Plan Coaching →

3. Help Someone Else Make One

Care Plan Support & Facilitator Resources

For caregivers, peer supporters, coaches, community leaders, and others helping people identify and communicate their own support needs.

Explore Facilitator Resources →

4. Host a Workshop

Care Plan Creation Workshop Kit + Facilitator Coaching

For organizations and community leaders who want to bring care planning to an entire group.

Get the curriculum and resources—or work with me to prepare your version.

Get the Workshop Kit →

Book Facilitator Coaching →

Created by Quinn Fleur

Hi, I'm Quinn Fleur.

I'm autistic, ADHD, disabled, chronically ill, queer, and someone whose ability to explain what I need can change dramatically depending on how I'm doing.

I can be incredibly articulate about my needs.

I can also become overwhelmed enough that:

“What do you need?”

might as well be:

“Please derive the quadratic formula while the building is on fire.”

I started developing this kind of care planning because I wanted to externalize some of that work.

I wanted the people who care about me to know:

What I’m like normally.

What changes first.

What helps.

What doesn’t.

How to communicate with me.

When to leave me alone.

When not to leave me alone.

What my disabilities actually look like.

What to check when neither of us knows what’s wrong.

And what I want to happen if everything really does go sideways.

But the more I worked on it, the more I realized:

You shouldn’t have to be in crisis to benefit from knowing how you want to be cared for.

A care plan can help us understand ourselves on ordinary days too.

A Care Plan Isn’t Permission to Control Someone

This is important.

A Care Plan should support autonomy.

It should not become:

“Your document says you’re Orange, therefore I’m taking over.”

Support still requires communication and consent whenever the person is capable of participating.

Someone’s plan may explicitly say:

Let me take reasonable risks.

Don’t make decisions for me.

Ask before touching me.

Offer help instead of automatically taking over.

Give me processing time.

Believe me when I tell you something isn’t helping.

The purpose of knowing someone’s needs is to support their autonomy—not replace it.

Your Care Plan Is Allowed to Change

The plan you make today isn’t a contract with Future You.

Maybe you discover a better communication strategy.

Maybe medication changes your baseline.

Maybe you get diagnosed.

Maybe you recover from burnout.

Maybe your disability progresses.

Maybe you realize a coping strategy you’ve used for years doesn’t actually help.

Maybe a relationship changes.

Maybe you simply understand yourself better.

Update it.

Cross things out.

Add pages.

Delete entire sections.

Write:

“We tried this. Turns out I fucking hate it.”

That’s useful information.

A Care Plan should grow alongside the person it belongs to.

Stop Expecting Yourself to Explain Everything in the Moment

Figure out what helps while you have access to the part of your brain that can think about it.

Write it down.

Give your loved ones a map.

Give Future You a checklist.

Give healthcare providers the information they need.

Give your community better tools for supporting one another.

And give yourself permission to need different kinds of care on different kinds of days.

Make your own.

Get the Care Plan Guide + Blank Template →

Build it with me.

Book One-on-One Care Plan Coaching →

Help somebody else build theirs.

Get the Care Plan Facilitator Resources →

Bring it to your community.

Get the Care Plan Creation Workshop Kit →

Book Workshop Facilitator Coaching →

Important Note

These Care Plan resources, workshops, and coaching are educational and peer-support tools. They are not medical treatment, psychotherapy, case management, crisis intervention, or a substitute for individualized professional care.

The medical-support portions of the template are intended to help people document their existing diagnoses, clinician-provided instructions, known accommodations, and established flare plans. General examples in the template should be customized to the individual rather than treated as medical instructions.

Similarly, a Safety / Red Alert Plan can help people think through emergencies in advance, but a written plan cannot anticipate every crisis. Immediate medical emergencies, imminent danger, or situations where someone cannot remain safe may require appropriate professional or emergency support.

People creating plans for others should work collaboratively, preserve the person’s privacy and autonomy, avoid diagnosing or prescribing treatment outside their professional scope, and avoid turning a care plan into a tool for surveillance or control.

The person is always more important than the plan.