Review/Comparative articleAn exploration of person-centred concepts in human services: A thematic analysis of the literature

- The current understanding of person-centredness facilitates further misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
- The review indicates that a key reason why person-centredness covers such a wide terrain is because conceptualisations and developments in person-centredness have evolved within their policy spheres which have been largely siloed.
- This siloed development of understanding person-centredness has contributed to a wide range of conceptualisations making it resistant to narrowing understanding and subject to inconsistent measurement or operationalisation.
- The review suggests that there are key points of overlap despite this siloed development which may contribute to a joint conceptualisation.
- Further research on application and service expressions of being 'person-centred' is necessary.

Being 'person-centred' in the delivery of health and human services has become synonymous with quality care, and it is a core feature of policy reform in Australia and other Western countries. This research aimed to identify the uses, definitions and characteristics of the term 'person-centred' in the ageing, mental health and disability literature. A thematic analysis identified seven common core themes of person-centredness: honouring the person, being in relationship, facilitating participation and engagement, social inclusion/citizenship, experiencing compassionate love, being strengths/capacity focussed, and organisational characteristics. These suggest a set of higher-order experiences for people that are translated differently in different human services. There is no common definition of what it means to be person-centred, despite being a core feature of contemporary health and human service policy, and this suggests that its inclusion facilitates further misunderstanding and misinterpretation. A common understanding and policy conceptualisation of person-centredness is likely to support quality outcomes in service delivery especially where organisations work across human service groups. Further research into the application and service expressions of being 'person-centred' in context is necessary.