Person Centred Newsletter March 2013

............ Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • March 2013 • 1 ...........

Northcott Person Centred NewsletterOur monthly newsletter offers small and real examples from people we support who are having a stronger voice, more control over their lives and more choices.

Tamworth’s Person Centred Journey

March 2013

In 2013 we are focusing on strengthening the person centred capacity of people we support and staff in NSW’s regional areas. The Communicating the Change team met with Coordinators and Support Workers from Tamworth and Moree with the aim to enhance person centred knowledge, skills and confidence.

Sarah, one of the CTC facilitators shares her trip highlights:

“Our team’s recent trip to Tamworth made me appreciate the value of a shared story. It was a privilege to be able to share our experiences, knowledge and skills and to help Tamworth’s support workers to take their first steps on their own person centred journey. It was fantastic to hear their ideas and experiences and watch them use some person centred techniques. Using the ‘What’s Working/What’s Not Working’ tool provided the group with the opportunity to reflect on their practice, have their say and identify areas for change. Their passion and enthusiasm to welcome change in order to enhance the lives of the people they work with was very encouraging.

Finishing the day with a PATH enabled workers to identify two goals: developing a communication book which is vital to working as a team and holding two planning sessions with clients and staff”.

Tamworth Support Workers and the Communicating the Change team, with completed PATH


Measuring Our Impact

The team will be following up with the Tamworth support workers with Person Centred Champion training and Mentoring sessions, but in the short term we wanted to measure the impact of the workshop had on the knowledge, skills and confidence in using person centred approaches. Workers rated themselves at the beginning and end of the workshop.

The Self Ratings at End of Workshop chart indicates a significant increase in the knowledge, skills and confidence felt by support workers.


Tamworth and Moree Coordinators PATH

12 service coordinators from Northcott’s Tamworth and Moree offices attended a 1 day ‘Welcome To The Journey’ workshop which examined the values and some tools of person centred approaches.

Grets and Ben facilitated a PATH planning tool which provided the Coordinators opportunities to reflect on their existing practice and identify areas of future strength.

Progress in the PATH goals will be measured in team meetings and at a review session in six months’ time.

Tamworth and Moree Coordinators with their completed PATH


Developing Strategies for the Future

It is well known that physical activity can help peoples’ emotional health, but it came as a welcome surprise to Elsie* when her son, Peter, coped brilliantly during her unexpected hospital admission recently. Peter put his ability to cope down to his regular gym visits, which had made him feel stronger and less anxious.

Peter, who experiences a number of mental health issues, had been doing some Futures Planning work with Cass, from Northcott’s Support Coordination for Older Parent Carers, based in Queanbeyan. Peter said he wanted to go to a gym to lose weight and at first attended with a support worker, but now he says he can go alone. He has told Cass he now feels more capable of dealing with things in his life and can think of strategies for a future when his Mum isn’t around.

Futures Planning is one of a number of person centred approaches to working with older parent carers which Support Coordination takes. Futures Planning involves parents, the person with a disability and key family members getting together to make future care plans.

*Names have been changed.

The Support Coordination for Older Parent Carers service covers over 13 Local Government Areas including Young, Goulburn, Batemans Bay and Bega Valley – they can be contacted on 02 6297 6899.

Renee and Cass from Support Coordination for Older Parent Carers based in Queanbeyan


Launch of Northcott’s Champions Program – People Championing Change

Nine people from southern Sydney are training to become Person Centred Champions – the focus is on them acquiring the knowledge, skills and experience to be person centred change agents in their own lives as well as to influence others.

Over four one-day sessions, six people who Northcott supports and four Northcott staff will receive training in person centred thinking, skills in using person centred tools and the enhanced confidence to make a difference!

What does person centredness mean to you?

Aaron, Marina and Michael discuss in week one what person centredness means to them.

Everyone was asked about 1 thing they would like to get out of the Champions Program.

A new initiative is that each new Champion will be mentored by a Mentor who is a Northcott Champion with two years of experience of implementing person centred approaches into their personal life or work life. Next month we will bring you stories from the Mentors and new Champions.


New Champions Focus on Assertiveness

For many of Northcott’s new Champions being more assertive was critical to them becoming more person centred. So, in Week 2 of Champions training the Champions examined the following questions:

• Why be assertive?

• How assertive do you rate yourself?

• What are the key assertive skills to use?

For many, the most useful part of the day was learning an assertiveness response framework which Marina is displaying below.

Many Champions thought this framework of responses was the most useful part of the day. Marina says she is going to use this framework when the need arises over the next few weeks.

Developing facilitation skills and experiences are a key part of the Champion experience. Ellen facilitated and scribed the group’s responses to the question: ‘Why be assertive?’


Shirley with David Long, General Manager, People and Culture at Northcott

Not Just Listening to People, but Planning with People

When thinking and planning on how to adapt to a world of individualized funding and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, are organizations asking their potential future customers? Northcott’s People and Culture team invited Shirley Wong, past-Client Ambassador and now employed as a Person Centred Presenter and Facilitator, to share her perspective as a potential purchaser of their human resources. This is what Shirley is looking for in a consumer-focused organization:

1. More computerised documents. This would be easier for people who can’t write. They can type their answers on the forms on the computer without relying on others to write for them.

2. I would expect well trained, quality staff to assist me because it gets frustrating when they don't do their job properly. An example is if a staff member says they can take me out on the weekend, when they don't turn up, it's frustrating.

3. Clients’ involvement in making the service better such as Client Ambassador programs and client involvement in evaluating services. If staff and clients problem solve together, this results in better quality services.

The People and Culture team were also directed to the Australian edition of Progress for Providers - Checking your progress in delivering personalized services. Produced by National Disability Services and Helen Sanderson Associates, it offers constructive and realistic suggestions of how organizations can transform to person centred ones. Find it on NDS’s website under Publications at: http://www.nds.org.au/publications/page/2?s=&c=&e=115


Grets Self Managed Journey So Far - March Update

“Well, a month in and things are travelling along nicely surrounding my transition to Self Managed Community Participation. Although I'm a little tense about everything being sorted before I start Uni, I've been stoked at the progress which has been made so far, in particularly hiring my own staff and developing my Individual Plan.

OK so, currently I'm at the tail end of the process of hiring my own staff and waiting for police checks to be cleared.

I have also completed my Individual Plan which outlines my goals, location and the assistance I require to achieve each 1 of them. My 5 goals vary from being specific such as attending Uni, horse riding and swimming, to more general like improving my independence and social life. I did this so I'll get both structure and a purpose in my program as well as being flexible around other commitments that may pop up.

Even though I'm just at the starting gates of my journey I feel I've learnt a lot already such as organising the hiring of my own staff and motivating myself to get everything done. I'm now excited to enter this next stage of my journey and I'll be sure to keep you in tune!"

Grets, at a friend’s house in Springwood.

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Gretta Serov IPP 2013 Goal Reasons

SpecificsLocation Help

requiredUniversity

Bachelor of Art

- To be intellectually stimulated - To interact with people i relate to (same passions) - To fulfil a life long dream

UWS Kingswood

Campus

-Taxi fares (hopefully funded by Scholarship) -Lunch and personal care (2 hours a day) -Attending meetings and other events

Swimming

- To exercise and gain more movement - To improve swimming ability - To access my local community

Springwood Aquatics Centre

-Access to hoist & pool chair (provided at the pool) -All day shift (5 hours) -Taxi fares ($61.54)

Horse Riding

- To act on literally a life-long interest and passion - To gain therapy - To aim to go outback trail riding independently - To meet people with the same interest

Tall Timbers RDA

-Access to either a hoist or trained people to lift me on the horse (at the venue) -Purchase riding riding equipment (personal cash) -All day shift (5 Hours) -Taxi fares ($43.35)

Socialise

- To meet up with different groups of friends - To embrace university life - to improve independence - To access my community Various

Places

–Self organisation -Staff shifts (mainly Saturdays am/pm) -Taxi fares or public transport

Improve Independence

- To research accessible equipment - To instruct different carers in how to best care for me - communicating in the community

- To catch public transport (maybe)

Various Places

–Self organisation -Staff shifts (mainly Saturdays am/pm) -Taxi fares or public transport

GRET

What are my

passions??? Art Music

Writing

Animals

Hanging out

with friends What people say

about me???

I'm inspiring

I'm intelligent

I'm bubbly

I'm helpful

I'm creative

This

year my goal is

To start university and

manage my own CPP

program

How people can best support me???

By consulting me personally about any care needs

By treating me like a friend when caring for me (I'm pretty

laid back)

By Respecting my goals and desires


We’re very excited about The Self Managed Model, not just because of the flexibility it allows people in managing their own service, but because the model is prompting us to shift our thinking in how we deliver services.

Northcott’s Self Managed Model

While the model is continuously developing, there are five crucial themes:

1. Internal Relationships – The Self Managed Model isn’t just new to our service users, it’s new to Northcott as a whole! Everybody has a role to play. Some of our corporate departments are now looking at how to make their services more accessible to the people who we support.

2. Policies and Procedures – There are new responsibilities that clients can have with a Self Managed package and clear information is crucial. Clients will be using and following our Policies and Procedures, so the first step is to make sure that they are accessible and user friendly.

3. Balancing Risk and Choice – Whilst we want to offer our clients as much flexibility with their choices as possible, we also need to consider some of the risks those choices may pose to us as an organisation. It can be difficult to juggle both the ‘client focused’ and ‘business’ mind sets, but we are confident that we are moving in the right direction!

4. Finances – We pride ourselves on the fact that our model is very transparent in terms of the costs we are passing on to clients. As we are moving from traditionally block-funded services to more individualised purchasable services, we need to work out exactly what those services will cost.

5. Recruitment – Our clients are entitled to choose the people that support them and work with them to achieve their goals. Whilst we are currently able to implement that to an extent, we still need to consider the duty of care we have to our clients and also our staff. Industrial relations law and human resources policies can be tricky business, so it’s important we are working closely with our HR team to get things right.

For more information call Katie Hawton, Facilitator Self Managed Packages Ph: (02) 9890 0922


Become ‘Friends’ to hear more about person

centred practice in action - ‘Like’ Northcott on Facebook to see daily updates about what people around the State are doing to have more voice, choice and control. We also recommend ‘Liking’ Helen Sanderson Associates – she regularly posts useful short examples of how she is using person centred approaches in schools and hospitals.

Penrith’s 1 Page Profile Wall

Penrith office kicked off their first Person Centred Development Group by all agreeing to complete their 1 Page Profiles and creating a 1 Page Profile Wall in their in their office entrance for all visitors to see.

Cindy says the biggest benefit of her 1 Page Profile was that it was an opportunity to be up-front about how the state of her desk reflects her creative and innovative nature and not poor organizational skills! This has been understood and accepted by her new manager!


If you have any small example of people having greater choice, voice or control in their life or in the work place, we would love to tell others about it in our Newsletter – so please give me a call on 9890 0517 or email me on [email protected].

Thanks, Liz Hopkins.

Send us your great person centred news!

The ‘co-production’ of services is a bit of a buzz word, but basically it is people who use services and service providers getting together to discuss and plan to make good ideas happen. Recently a group of clients and staff used some project management tools to provide useful structure to make the following great ideas a reality:

• PSSP - Powerchair Soccer School Program

• Gangleon Fire - Photo Editing Portfolio Development

• My Country Rules - A video reflecting the culinery cultural diversity of clients and staff

Jargon Picked Apart - Co-Producing Services - What Does It Mean?

How NOT to be Accessible

The UK might be a rich source of personalization initiatives, but this isn’t one we are going to adopt! Seen in many shop windows in Ludlow, Shropshire, were signs for people who use wheelchairs to tap on the shop window if they needed help...

Shaz and Gurkirat, UWS Medical Student on placement, discuss the Powerchair Soccer School

Person Centred Newsletter March 2013

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Transcript of Person Centred Newsletter March 2013