50th Anniversary Video Series: Director of Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Services

During his 24-year career at Southside Behavioral Health (SBH), Director of Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (ID/DD) Services Paul Mandel led the redesign of day support and other programs to promote person-centered services. In this video, he discusses how taking a person-centered approach gives individuals more control over their plans, allowing them to discuss their hopes, dreams, and goals. Mandel believes that “person-centered” planning and thinking is the best thing to happen to ID/DD services in the past 24 years and he has seen behaviors decrease as well as individuals grow within the community. For him, it’s all about the individuals, helping them work through barriers and see their own potential. In the future, he’d like to see Southside Behavioral Health continue to revise and expand the size of community engagement services. These services specifically give individuals the opportunity to work on and develop necessary skills within the community, such as banking and shopping. Currently, Southside Behavioral Health offers community engagement in all three counties and the individuals love it. Additionally, participating organizations love to have them and often ask for them to participate in different activities.