The pre-enrollment phase of the Self-Determination, the participant climbs a steep mountain. In traditional services the client and the Service Coordinator write the IPP and they’re done. No so with Self-Determination. The participant must come up with four documents–the person centered plan, the individual budget, the spending plan, and of course the IPP. That is a lot to come up with, especially if you are not used to writing documents. Each document presents i’s own challengers. If you are not used to talking about yourself, the PCP can be really hard. The individual plan is all about money and there is nothing more contentious than talking about money. The spending plan is tied to the individual budget because it spells how you are going to spend the budgeted money. The IPP spending plan is a contractual agreement with SDRC that pulls together all the other documents. That is a lot of paper and a lot of hard work goes into generating it. Many find climbing this mountain intimidating, and others find the process slow and painful. The legislature needs to take a look at this to stream line this burdensome process. It is just too hard.