Person Centred Newsletter October 2013

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

Our 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.

October 2013

? Asking different questions

gets surprise answers!

If you support someone to

live in their home, you will

be familiar with the Essential

Lifestyle Plan (ELP) – it’s a

small and visual collection of

information about a person.

It focuses on the people and

things that are important in

their life, as well as how they

want to be supported to live

a full life in their community.

‘Good Day / Bad Day’ is a part

of the ELP which asks you to

imagine and describe what

your ideal good day would be

like and what your bad day

would be like.

Lennie said that he and

Kerrie were happy to act as

“guinea pigs” so that some

staff who support them could

practice using the ‘Good

Day / Bad Day’ questions.

Although Rhonda and Maureen

know Lennie well, they were

surprised to learn about his

desire to go to pig hunting!

However, they were not

surprised to hear that Lennie’s

daughters were most important

to him, but hearing it made

them realise they could do

more to support his connection

with his daughters.

Using the information, they are

going to support both Lennie

and Kerrie to have Essential

Lifestyle Plans – so they will get

more of the life they want and

need.

Rhonda, Lennie and Maureen

Kerrie and support staff


“Kay has been reliant upon her walking

frame to get around for a few years

now. At her ELP meeting Kay identifi ed

that one of her dreams is to walk

without the aid of her walking frame.

Following this meeting, Kay saw a

physiotherapist a number of times and

was given some exercises to do each

day. Through Kay’s hard work and

commitment and with some great

support from team members, she

became stronger and more confi dent

with her walking. Last month, Kay

was extremely proud that she was

able to complete the entire Walk

With Me Parramatta without using

her frame.

This is a great example of how simple it can be to

make a huge difference in someone’s life."

Goldie

The success of asking

different questions!

Kerry and Goldie have simplifi ed Northcott’s Essential Lifestyle

Plan form and are now using it with people at Beverley Park to

explore peoples’ dreams and goals. Goldie describes how using

the ELP form has been a simple way of turning one woman’s

dream into her reality:

d


NEW

COMMUNITIES

in PRACTICE

Over the past few months new Communities

in Practice have been forming across NSW –

funded by National Disability Services, through

the Industry Development Fund - they are

opportunities for people who are interested in

sharing and learning from one another’s person

centred practice.

Community in Practice – Nepean

CiP Purpose:

This is what the three CiPs across Metro North Sydney decided the purpose of their group was:

Community in Practice

Cumberland Prospect’s

Group Purpose:

“A supportive forum to provide and exchange ideas in order to enable social revolutionaries to bring the concept of person centred planning to be mainstream”

Community in Practice Northern Sydney’s Group Purpose:

“An inclusive community for sharing opportunities and challenges, which is as diverse as the people we support”.

Why is a Group Purpose a

person centred strategy?

It was an activity which

everyone participated in.

People had an opportunity to

share their opinions and listen

to others. People then voted on

their favoured group purpose.


Share, learn and be inspired!

Each Community in Practice meeting will focus on one approach – this time it was 1 Page Profi les.

All Northern Sydney CiP members had experience of using 1 page profi les in different and

imaginative ways –

Paul, now at Sylvanvale, has used

staff and clients’ 1 page profi les in staff

supervision at Life Without Barriers –

“it’s a great way to draw on

people’s individual strengths.

Also, referring to a client’s 1

page profi le in supervision is

a great way to remind us what

actions are person centred and

what are not”.

Kristen at Royal Rehabilitation has been successfully using the 1 page profi le in recruiting –

“We ask people to prepare their own 1 page profi le to bring to the interview. It’s a useful way of seeing whether people can follow instructions, also as a indicator of our values, and a springboard for interesting interview conversations”

t R l RK

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Nicola and Kristen from Royal Rehabilitation Centre

Paul from Sylvanvale


Inspired to do what?

“As a result of hearing and learning from one another today, what practice are you going to start? And what practice are you going to stop?” – this was asked of everyone – as you can see the Cumberland Prospect CiP were inspired to either

start their 1 page profi le or up-date their existing one. Many were going to do the ‘Good day / Bad

day at work’ with staff or have conversations with their managers about person centred practice.

What next?

Both Paul and Camilla have offered to bring

details of their 1 page profi le experience to the

next meetings.

Nepean CiP focused on the Landscape Plan – a

simple one page plan which everyone got to do.

People said they were inspired to do their own

Landscape Plan or to talk to people at work

about doing one.

?


It’s all about RIGHTS!

So, what is really happening

with the NDIS?

Here are some of the things we

know about the NDIS – made

simple by Sev MacCue:

• The National Disability

Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

started operating in the

Hunter Launch site with

the aim of providing

funded support to people

with disability, that are

reasonable and necessary

for them to achieve goals

and aspirations.

• Unknown factors are

now known: the NDIA

portal is now fully

operational and accessible

for transitioning service

providers.

• Still a number of uncertainties around the

extent of funding that

people will receive and

how current programs

will fl ow into support

clusters and funded line

items.

• Registered Service

providers will only be

able to deliver service to

the parts of a person’s

plan from the support

clusters they are registered to provide and

the person chooses them

to provide.

• The model means that

Disability Programs

will no longer exist

and support for clients

will eventually need to

be delivered through

support streams or

‘Effects’ that refl ect

related groupings of

support clusters.

A key focus of NDS’s Person Centred

Approaches Program is Human Rights –

they have developed some great training for

organisations - a few people attending the

Communities in Practice recommended it.

Thinking about the human rights of people with a

disability was an ‘aha’ moment for Anna Breen:

“Today, I learned what the Convention on

the rights of Persons with Disabilities means

for people within Australia and in NSW (the

specifi c actions that States must take to

protect against discrimination on the basis

of disability - http://www.advokit.org.au/

general-information/international - …I also

learned that Community In Practice is only one

of a number of elements of the Person Centred

approaches program. Want to learn more like I

do? Please take a look at http://www.nds.org.

au/projects/article/164 For me, these are two

fundamental pieces to the jigsaw puzzle that

will help us all move towards the roll out of the

National Disability Insurance Scheme state wide

http://www.disabilitycareaustralia.gov.au/ “


Want to learn more about person centred approaches?

Sue did and so she’s currently studying the Diploma in Community Work in Person Centredness

through the Centre for Disability Studies at Sydney University. Here’s what she thinks of it so far:

“The course is fantastic – it is interesting, challenging, thought provoking and valuable in terms of developing my skills and broadening my understanding of Person centred thinking and practise.

The fi rst module focussed on person centred communication - from a professional, personal and organisational level, this included listening deeply to the people we support, our colleagues and community as a starting point to truly person centred practise.

Some questions about communication that I’ve asked myself and my colleagues are: • Think about someone who you feel is a

good communicator or listener? • What personal qualities or skills make

them a good listener? • What could you do today to build on

your listening skills?”

For more details about the Diploma look at CDS’s website:

http://www.cdds.med.usyd.edu.au/education-a-training/

diploma-of-community-services-work-in-person-centredness


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!

Tamworth get creative with

their 1 page profiles!

At a recent team planning day, our Tamworth team set a goal

for everyone to have a 1 page profi le. As you can see, it’s

unleashed some creativity as well as friendly banter according

to Matt, the Tamworth manager:

"September 1st was our due date, so as the day approached

people were getting more and more creative and swapping

ideas with one another. It created a bit of friendly banter about

who spent the most time doing theirs! People have put them

up as their screen savers and also up at their desks.

As a team it has been really important that we can learn about

each other and know how to support each other through

reading each other’s 1 page profi les”.

Janice Bartlett

Regional Administration Assistant

What people like & admire about

me at work

Organised

Friendly

Knowledgeable

Helpful

Efficient

Flexible

Appreciated

What is important to me about my

work

Doing the job right

Doing a good job

Helping & supporting others

Being informed

Flexibility

Good support for me at work

Information on what’s happening

Communication

Time

Acknowledgement

work

penin

Documents

Person Centred Newsletter October 2013