Host a Care Plan Creation Workshop

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How Neuroqueer Apothecary works →

A lot of communities are very good at saying:

“Ask for what you need.”

The problem is that sometimes we don't know.

Or we know when we're regulated but lose access to that information when we're overwhelmed.

Or we know exactly what we need but can't communicate it.

Or we ask for help and the person helping has absolutely no idea what to do next.

Care planning moves some of those conversations before the crisis.

Instead of improvising support while someone is at their limit, participants create a reference for:

What I'm like normally.

How you'll know something is changing.

What helps early.

What makes things worse.

How my communication changes.

What to check when I don't know what's wrong.

What helps when I'm overwhelmed.

What support looks like during a crisis.

How I want people to preserve my autonomy while helping me.

That can be extraordinarily useful information to have written down.

This isn't a lecture where participants spend an hour hearing about how they should take care of themselves.

It's a structured working session.

Participants are introduced to the Care Plan framework and then guided through exercises designed to help them actually begin creating their own plans.

There are opportunities to:

Reflect privately

Complete worksheets

Identify patterns

Discuss ideas where appropriate

Build support menus

Create communication preferences

Identify distress levels

Think through crisis planning

Talk with trusted people

and ultimately:

Write something they can use after the workshop ends.

Care planning can be useful in an enormous range of communities.

The workshop can be especially valuable for:

• Autistic people
• People with ADHD
• Neurodivergent adults
• Chronically ill people
• Disabled people
• People experiencing burnout
• People with fluctuating capacity
• People who experience shutdowns or meltdowns
• People with sensory needs
• People who struggle to identify what they need
• People who have difficulty communicating under stress
• Queer and trans communities
• Chosen families
• Partners and polycules
• Caregivers
• Peer-support groups
• Mutual-aid networks
• Community organizations
• Support groups
• College organizations

And honestly:

People.

You don't need a diagnosis to benefit from understanding how you want to be supported.

The Workshop Kit is designed for people who want to bring structured care planning into their existing communities or support work.

That might include:

• Community organizers
• Peer-support facilitators
• Disability organizers
• Queer and trans organizations
• Neurodivergent groups
• Support-group leaders
• Educators
• Coaches
• Caregivers
• Mutual-aid organizers
• Student organizations
• Community centers
• Chosen-family groups
• Friends who looked at the Care Plan and immediately said, “Holy shit, everyone I know needs one of these.”

You don't need to position yourself as the expert on somebody else's needs.

In fact, you shouldn't.

The facilitator's job is to provide structure, questions, options, time, and support.

Participants remain the experts on themselves.

You shouldn't have to create an entire curriculum before you can help people make care plans.

The kit is designed to answer:

• What do I teach?
• What order should I teach it in?
• What should participants actually do?
• What questions should I ask?
• How do I explain the different sections?
• Where should we take breaks?
• What topics should remain private?
• How do I support somebody who’s stuck?
• How do I make the workshop accessible?
• What do I do if somebody doesn’t know the answer?
• How do I keep this from accidentally becoming group therapy?

I've already done the curriculum-building part.

You get to facilitate it.

1. Facilitator Guide

Your roadmap for running the workshop.

The guide walks you through the purpose of each activity, concepts to introduce, questions to ask, facilitation considerations, and ways to help participants when they get stuck.

It also helps you distinguish between:

Helping someone think

and

Telling someone what they need.

That's an important difference.

2. Workshop Agenda & Run of Show

Know what you're doing before everyone arrives.

The workshop structure can help you plan:

Welcome & orientation

What a Care Plan is

Quick Reference

Understanding Me

Communication

Distress Levels

Distress Checklist

Comfort Menu

Relationships & Conflict

Safety Planning

Optional Medical Support

Next Steps

Closing

You'll have a structure you can adapt depending on your group's needs and available time.

3. Participant Workbook

Every participant gets something to actually work on.

The workbook guides people through questions such as:

• What does a good day look like for me?
• What changes first when I’m struggling?
• What do people consistently misunderstand about me?
• How does my communication change under stress?
• What questions can I still answer when overwhelmed?
• What sensory input helps?
• What sensory input hurts?
• What does support feel like?
• What feels controlling?
• What do I need when I can’t identify what I need?
• Who are my safe people?

The goal is not necessarily to leave with every page completed.

The goal is to leave with more information about yourself than you arrived with and a structure for continuing the work.

4. The Blank Care Plan Template

Participants can take the full Care Plan home and continue developing it.

The template includes sections for:

• Quick Reference
• Understanding Me
• Communication
• Doing Well
• Stress
• Overwhelm
• Shutdown
• Anxiety & Panic
• Depression
• Burnout
• Physical Pain & Exhaustion
• Sensory Seeking
• Sensory Avoidance
• Decision Fatigue
• Distress Levels
• Distress Checklist
• Comfort Menu
• Medical Support
• Capacity / Spoons Planning
• Relationships & Conflict
• Accountability & Repair
• Safety / Red Alert Planning
• Healthcare & Specialist Information

Participants can use every section—or only the ones that matter to them.

5. Care Plan Presentation

Because you shouldn't also have to make the PowerPoint.

The workshop materials include a presentation designed to guide participants through the major concepts and activities.

Use the slides to introduce:

What care planning is

Why it helps

How to identify baseline functioning

Early warning signs

Communication differences

Green / Yellow / Orange / Red

Basic-needs check-ins

Comfort and regulation

Supporting without controlling

Crisis planning

How to continue the plan afterward

Use the deck as provided or customize it for your community.

6. Facilitator Presentation Notes

Slides tell participants what they're looking at.

The facilitator notes help you know what you're talking about.

You'll get context, suggested explanations, discussion prompts, activity instructions, important distinctions, and reminders about accessibility, consent, privacy, and scope.

You don't need to memorize a script.

The notes give you enough structure to make the workshop your own.

7. Green / Yellow / Orange / Red Activity

Participants create their own personalized distress map.

🟢 Green

What does my normal range look like?

🟡 Yellow

What changes first?

🟠 Orange

What happens when my coping resources are becoming exhausted?

🔴 Red

What tells me my normal coping strategies are no longer enough?

Then comes the important part:

What helps at each level?

Because “support me when I'm struggling” is vague.

“When I'm Yellow, help me cancel unnecessary commitments and remind me to eat” is something another person can actually use.

8. Distress Checklist Activity

Sometimes:

“What do you need?”

is simply too large a question.

Participants learn how to systematically check areas such as:

Food • Hydration • Medication • Pain • Sleep • Temperature • Sensory input • Emotions • Cognitive load • Social needs • Environment • Responsibilities • Regulation

Instead of expecting someone to spontaneously understand their entire internal state while overwhelmed, the checklist gives them somewhere to start.

9. Build-a-Comfort-Menu Activity

This is one of the most practical pieces of the workshop.

Participants create their own menu of things that may help across categories such as:

Physical comfort • Sensory regulation • Co-regulation • Food and hydration • Rest • Cognitive rest • Emotional care • Creative activities • Spiritual care • Social connection • Practical support

Instead of a supporter asking:

“WHAT CAN I DO?”

while everyone panics, the person can have actual options.

Tea.

Quiet.

Food.

Headphones.

Parallel play.

Help deciding.

Go home.

Call someone.

Heating pad.

No-input time.

Whatever actually works for them.

10. Communication Mapping

One of the most useful workshop conversations is:

How do I communicate when communication gets hard?

Participants explore:

Preferred communication styles

Processing time

Verbal vs. written communication

Alternative communication

Questions that are easy to answer

Questions that become impossible

Touch preferences

Eye-contact preferences

How they ask for space

What silence means

What reassurance works

How someone should reconnect

They can build alternatives such as:

Texting • Writing • Communication cards • AAC • Emoji systems • Number scales • Color systems • Thumbs up/down • Pointing • Hand signals

A care plan doesn't require somebody to communicate the same way at every level of distress.

11. Support Without Taking Over

This is foundational to the workshop.

Knowing someone's Care Plan doesn't give you authority over them.

If somebody's plan says:

“When I'm overwhelmed, offer me three choices,”

that does not mean:

“When they're overwhelmed, I make all their decisions.”

The workshop teaches participants to distinguish:

Support

from

Control.

That can mean:

Offer help instead of assuming it.

Ask before touching.

Respect reasonable risks.

Give processing time.

Don't treat distress as incompetence.

Don't use the Care Plan to win arguments.

Don't police someone's behavior because you think they're “Orange.”

A Care Plan should increase autonomy.

Not decrease it.

12. Relationship & Conflict Planning

Support isn't only about meltdowns and bad health days.

It's also about what happens when two people are pissed at each other.

Participants can begin identifying:

How concerns should be raised

When difficult conversations should happen

When conversations should pause

What escalation looks like

What communication styles make conflict worse

What helps them process

What accountability means

What repair looks like

How they prefer to reconnect

Imagine knowing before the argument that your partner needs 30 minutes of processing time but also needs reassurance that the conversation isn't being abandoned.

That's useful information.

13. Optional Medical Support Planning

For chronic-illness and disability-focused groups, the workshop can include an additional Medical Support component.

Participants can begin documenting:

Important conditions

Medications

Mobility aids

Known flare patterns

Established treatment plans

What supporters can help with

What shouldn't be assumed

When their usual strategies aren't working

When they want outside medical help

The purpose is not for participants or facilitators to diagnose or prescribe treatment.

It's to document:

“This is what my healthcare plan already looks like, and this is how you can help me follow it.”

14. Safety & Red Alert Planning

Some participants may choose to create a plan for times when ordinary support isn't enough.

They can think through:

Warning signs

Safe people

People not to contact

Safe places

Coping strategies that actually work

Communication preferences

Sensory supports

Emergency instructions

When professional support may be needed

Hospital or crisis preferences

Important information for supporters

This portion should be facilitated carefully.

Nobody should be required to publicly disclose crisis history, trauma, suicidal thoughts, medical information, or other private experiences in order to participate.

A care-planning workshop is not group therapy.

The kit helps facilitators maintain that distinction.

Some parts of a Care Plan are personal.

Really personal.

Participants may be thinking about:

Relationships.

Mental health.

Medical conditions.

Trauma.

Family.

Crisis.

People they trust.

People they absolutely do not trust.

The workshop should never create pressure to perform vulnerability for the room.

Participants should be able to:

Skip questions.

Write privately.

Take breaks.

Decline discussion.

Leave sections blank.

Share only what they choose.

The goal is:

Reflection without forced disclosure.

A workshop about supporting neurodivergent people should probably not require them to sit under fluorescent lights listening to uninterrupted verbal instruction for three hours.

The facilitator materials encourage things like:

Clear agendas

Predictable transitions

Breaks

Written instructions

Multiple communication formats

Low-pressure participation

Permission to move

Permission to stim

Optional discussion

Processing time

Sensory considerations

Concrete examples

Reduced reliance on open-ended questions

No expectation of eye contact

And:

You do not have to finish everything today.

Completion is not the measure of whether the workshop worked.

The same Care Plan framework can become very different workshops.

Autism & ADHD

Communication • Sensory regulation • Masking • Shutdowns • Meltdowns • Executive dysfunction • Decision fatigue • Alternative communication

Chronic Illness & Disability

Capacity • Flares • Medical support • Mobility • Pain • Fatigue • Recovery • Healthcare communication

Queer & Trans Community

Chosen family • Autonomy • Identity • Safe contacts • Community care • Communication • Crisis support

Partners & Polycules

Communication • Co-regulation • Conflict • Capacity • Boundaries • Caregiving • Reconnection

Peer-Support Communities

Early intervention • Distress levels • Comfort menus • Support networks • Crisis planning • Autonomy

Caregivers & Supporters

Recognizing signs • Asking instead of assuming • Supporting communication • Preserving independence • Responding to distress

The kit gives you the foundation.

You decide what your community needs most.

The complete Care Plan is substantial.

That's intentional.

You don't have to cram it into one session.

The material can support different formats.

Care Plan 101
Introduce the concept, Quick Reference, Understanding Me, and basic support preferences.

Communication Workshop
Go deeper into processing, shutdowns, alternative communication, reassurance, and difficult conversations.

Build Your Distress Plan
Create Green / Yellow / Orange / Red plans and a Distress Checklist.

Build Your Comfort Menu
A lower-intensity, highly practical workshop focused on regulation and support.

Chronic Illness Care Planning
Focus on capacity, medical flares, accessibility, and healthcare communication.

Relationships & Conflict
Create communication, pause, accountability, repair, and reconnection plans.

Safety Planning
A more carefully facilitated session focused on support networks and crisis preferences.

Or run the whole thing as a:

Care Plan Workshop Series

Participants can build their plans over several sessions instead of trying to understand their entire nervous system on a Saturday afternoon.

You don't need to create a brand-new care-planning organization.

Bring the workshop into a community that already exists.

It can become programming for:

LGBTQ+ centers • Autistic-adult groups • Disability organizations • Mutual-aid networks • Peer-support groups • College LGBTQ+ organizations • University disability groups • Community centers • Support groups • Chosen-family gatherings • Retreats • Caregiver programs • Community conferences

The workshop creates something people can take home and continue using long after the event ends.

You don't have to figure that part out alone either.

Care Plan Workshop Facilitator Coaching

The kit gives you the curriculum.

I can help you turn it into your workshop.

Book Facilitator Coaching →

Depending on your experience and community, I can help with:

• Choosing your workshop format
• Deciding what content to include
• Creating an agenda
• Adapting the presentation
• Determining workshop length
• Planning breaks
• Making activities accessible
• Facilitating neurodivergent participants
• Handling different processing speeds
• Setting community agreements
• Protecting privacy
• Avoiding forced disclosure
• Introducing sensitive material
• Responding when someone becomes overwhelmed
• Maintaining appropriate facilitator boundaries
• Distinguishing peer support from therapy
• Planning small-group activities
• Preparing supplies and materials
• Practicing your presentation
• Troubleshooting your workshop
• Developing follow-up sessions

You can bring me:

“Here's my group. Here's my venue. Here's how much time I have. Help.”

That's enough to start.

You can also book a facilitator session specifically to rehearse.

Walk through:

Your introduction.

Your slides.

Your activities.

Your transitions.

Your explanations.

Your discussion prompts.

Your closing.

I can help identify:

Where instructions aren't clear

Where participants may need more processing time

Where you need a break

Where the workshop could accidentally become too disclosure-heavy

Which material can be cut

Which sections need more context

Where accessibility can be improved

Whether your two-hour workshop currently contains approximately seven hours of material

It happens.

Maybe the standard workshop isn't quite right.

You might want:

A Care Plan Workshop for Autistic Adults

or

Care Planning for Chronically Ill Partners

or

Building Chosen-Family Support Plans

or

Care Plans for Polycules

or

Disability Care Planning for College Students

I can help you adapt the existing framework around the needs of your specific audience.

Ask About Workshop Customization →

I also offer:

One-on-One Care Plan Coaching

Work through your own communication, distress, sensory, medical, relationship, capacity, and crisis-support needs with me.

Book Personal Care Plan Coaching →

Hi, I'm Quinn Fleur.

I'm autistic, ADHD, disabled, chronically ill, queer, and deeply interested in the question:

How do we get better at actually caring for each other?

Not theoretically.

Not:

“Reach out if you need anything!”

Actual care.

What should I bring you?

What should I ask?

What should I stop asking?

How do I know you're deteriorating?

What does your silence mean?

When should I give you space?

When should I check again?

What do I do if you can't talk?

How do I help without taking over?

What makes you feel cared for rather than controlled?

The Care Plan grew out of trying to answer those questions.

The workshop grew out of another realization:

These are incredibly useful questions to answer together.

When one person creates a Care Plan, they gain a tool.

When a community learns how to talk about care, communication, capacity, distress, autonomy, and support together, you start building a culture of care.

That's what this workshop is for.

Your participants don't need you to tell them how they should be cared for.

They need:

Time to think.

Better questions.

Examples when their minds go blank.

Language for things they've noticed but never named.

Permission to skip what doesn't fit.

A structure for writing down what does.

You provide the space.

I provide the framework.

They create the plan.

Bring Care Plan Creation to your community.

Get the Care Plan Creation Workshop Kit →

Want help preparing to facilitate it?

Book Care Plan Facilitator Coaching →

Need a customized workshop for your organization?

Ask About Workshop Customization →