........... 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
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 2 ..........
“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
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 3 ..........
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.
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 4 ..........
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”
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Nicola and Kristen from Royal Rehabilitation Centre
Paul from Sylvanvale
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 5 ..........
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.
?
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 6 ..........
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/ “
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 7 ..........
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
........... Northcott Person Centred Newsletter • October 2013 • 8 ..........
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