Beyond the Label: Individual Advocacy Groups’ Call to Redefine Inclusion for People with Complex Needs

Too often, society mistakes complexity for incapacity, sidelining those whose needs defy neat categories. Individuals with intertwined medical, behavioral, and trauma histories are stigmatized or placed at the margins of everyday life. This initial misunderstanding leads to a broader pattern of exclusion disguised as compassion, and public indifference hardened into policy.

The Individual Advocacy Group (IAG), a CARF-accredited nonprofit founded by Dr. Charlene A. Bennett and Dr. David Brooks, insists that words without change are hollow. IAG frames its mission as a collective wake-up call, a demand for cultural and policy reform that recognizes people with complex needs as citizens to be supported, not problems to be contained.

“Complexity doesn’t diminish worth. It demands imagination and commitment,” Dr. Bennett says. That imagination must translate into concrete support, reliable funding, trained professionals, and direct support staff who provide consistent, long-term support.

Three dynamics shape the landscape that IAG aims to change: fear, ignorance, and institutional momentum. When the public lacks clear language for what complex needs mean, anxiety fills the void and stereotypes proliferate. Historical biases and limited public information make it easier to default to containment rather than adaptation.

Moreover, funding streams and service models built for predictability recoil when confronted with individualized, intensive support needs. The result is social isolation, families stretched thin, and communities deprived of the contributions these individuals can make.

IAG emphasizes that these perceptions carry massive consequences. Individuals are pushed to the margins, and families often shoulder overwhelming responsibility. Public systems absorb recurring costs through emergency responses, frequent institutional placements, and long-term care that becomes more expensive than preventive support. Dr. Bennett shares, “Short-term savings achieved through exclusion become long-term costs in human dignity and public funds.”

Institutionalization is typically a blunt tool of last resort. When proactive, personalized options are unavailable, people end up in psychiatric hospitals, large congregate facilities, or even the criminal justice system. These settings may reduce acute risk temporarily, but they frequently strip away autonomy, impose rigid routines, and erode the everyday choices that shape identity and resilience. “Undoing that harm requires skilled, patient-centered intervention that rebuilds decision-making and restores simple liberties many take for granted,” Dr. Bennett says.

Education and awareness are the necessary first steps. However, as IAG has observed, they’re rarely sufficient. “Information changes minds for some, but not for all, and doesn’t change simply because people attend presentations,” Dr. Bennett states.

Many resist messages that complicate comfortable narratives. IAG argues that real conversion of attitude and resource allocation comes from sustained human contact: frequent, everyday interactions that dissolve fear and replace it with familiarity. “People change when they meet people,” Dr. Bennett notes.

“Those encounters are where fear softens and inclusion becomes conceivable.”

Amid this landscape, IAG champions inclusion through action. This means small, community-based homes, individualized support teams offering long-term, trauma-informed care, vocational pathways, and ongoing advocacy that helps people lease homes and form local ties. Rather than confining people to agency-run congregate settings, IAG helps individuals manage daily life, pursue meaningful work, and take civic roles.

To meet these challenges, IAG employs a holistic and flexible approach. Clinical and behavioral expertise is woven together with life skills coaching, legal advocacy, landlord engagement, and trauma-informed support. Staff are selected for patience and creativity, trained to tolerate slow, nonlinear progress, and compensated appropriately for the significance of their responsibilities.

In addition, IAG has litigated discriminatory housing rules, negotiated leases that protect both landlords and tenants, and initiated stabilization homes that provide the necessary support that diverts people from moving into more restrictive settings. These measures protect rights and demonstrate viability.

Overall, IAG’s call for change is both moral and pragmatic. Investing in individualized, community-based support can reduce reliance on expensive crisis systems, prevent family breakdown, and unlock potential that would otherwise be wasted. However, IAG reminds that investment requires a mindset shift across sectors.

“Policymakers must treat intensive support as capital rather than charity. Employers and landlords must see opportunity rather than a nuisance. Neighbors must accept the patience and presence required for real integration,” Dr. Bennett stresses. “We don’t liberate people by hiding them away. We liberate them by standing beside them.”

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