Best Practices – Provider

Practice
A provider developed creative strategies to teach money management skills on the basis that most often what individuals really want is to make their own purchases and control their own money although a support plan goal may read, “Learn money management skills” or “Learn to make change” or “Learn to count coins”… Instead, individuals obtain a pre-paid debit card. Then the training focus can be on safekeeping the card, learning their four-digit code, confidentiality, learning how to use different types of keypads, and retaining receipts. The provider developed a system to assist individuals in managing their accounts; two strips of colored paper that fit into slots in poster-board sandwiched together. At the beginning of the month, the slots are full signifying the days left in the month (red) and the money left in the card (green). As the individual uses the card, he saves receipts, and his coach adjusts the colored strips to give him a visual of how much money remains for the remainder of the month.

Another provider, unable to locate a user-friendly bank, identified with the individual her favorite stores and assisted her in purchasing refillable pre-paid gift cards at those stores.  As a result, the individual was able to make her purchases at her favorite store just like anyone else, which is all she really ever wanted.

Who Benefits? Individuals
How? Individuals achieve what is really most important to them. By getting to the bottom of what individuals really want, providers avoid years, sometimes decades, of ‘coin counting’ activities.