Values of the Polk County DAC

The following is a list of statements developed by staff and board at the Polk County DAC. They are intended to be used as a guideline within the mission and the policies of the DAC: standards which we strive to attain in our day to day programming for DAC clients. 

1. Clients should be involved in activities which nonhandicapped people participate in, and which encourage interaction with nondisabled peers.  
   
   Corollary: Training of skills should occur in the appropriate community setting, teaching skills which are needed to participate and which will enhance personal and community relationships.   

2. Clients should be given choices whenever possible. To facilitate this, clients should have access to information and opportunities to make choices and to exercise their rights during the program day.  

3. Clients should be treated as adults with individual and unique qualities, and should be treated in a positive manner. 

4. The DAC should foster and encourage a coordination of outcomes and effort on behalf of the client between service providers and with families in the interest of effective, appropriate training which is consistent between environments and which provides continuity for the client.  

5. When planning an individual’s program, the needs of the client as a whole persons should be considered including: communication, social, behavioral, vocational, leisure, and physical needs. 

6. Programming should provide the opportunity to try purposeful employment. 

7. Program activities should result in increasing interaction in the community in a way which does not reinforce stereotypes.

8. The program should give clients opportunities to learn new skills which challenge them to grow as individuals.

9. The program should be evaluated regularly by management and staff to assure that it is meeting individual client needs.

10. Clients should be allowed to take reasonable risks and should be given support in doing so, within the legal protections of the Vulnerable Adults Act. 

11. The program should incorporate recommendations resulting from professional evaluations in OT, PT, mental heath and other disciplines. The program staff should seek out, utilize and inform the interdisciplinary team regarding state of the art services and information.

12. Program activities should occur in heterogeneous groups of no more than five people at one time (except where larger homogeneous groups would be the norm for nondisabled peers).

13. Use of activities, materials, sites and interactions should be functional, age appropriate and purposeful.