One page: Designed to be filled in during an appointment and to survive being stuck on a fridge.
What is on the page
- My early signs — the two or three things that show up before a bad day does
- What I do first — one action, decided in advance, that does not require a decision
- What helps, in order — a short ranked list, so nobody is improvising
- What does not help — the things people offer that make it worse
- Who to tell — names and how to reach them
- When to call the clinic — written by you and your clinician together
How to use it
Fill it in on a good day. That is the whole trick. A flare-up plan written during a flare-up is a description of a bad day, not a plan for the next one.
Do it with the young person, not for them. The sections that get used are the ones they wrote.
Where to put it
One copy on the fridge, one photographed on a phone, one with the school nurse. Families who keep a single copy in a folder tend not to find it when they need it.
Revisit it
Every few months, and after any flare that did not go the way the plan expected. The "what does not help" section usually gets longer and more useful over time.
For clinicians and school staff
This sheet is designed to be completed in a fifteen-minute appointment. It is deliberately one page. If you need a version with your organisation's details on it, contact the program.
