This text describes how human service personnel can best determine the desires of consumers with disabilities and how human service agencies can provide optimal support. This book is a synthesis of knowledge about the outcomes of the lives of people with disabilities and how human service agencies operate. While the first area of concentration is about support for people with disabilities, the second focus is on the application of outcome management and ways to maximize the effectiveness of human service agencies. The book is organized into four sections. The first section is an overview of what constitutes person-centered planning and outcome management (chapters 2 and 3). The second section (chapters 4-11) is a detailed description of how the values, processes, and strategies of person-centered planning and outcome management are used collaboratively to maximize effectiveness, including step-by-step procedures for designing, managing and operating human-service agencies. The third section (chapter 12) provides a summary discussion of some of the most frequently encountered obstacles to managing human services. The fourth and final section includes an appendix of an instrument that can be applied in agencies to assess and improve operational success. Within each chapter, methods of providing support and services are described in day-to-day matters. The successes and common obstacles are discussed within each type of case illustration. Using examples of individuals with disabilities and their families, person-centered planning has been applied to relevant case studies. (Contains 53 references.) (CR)