Person centred approaches towards staff

Positive person centred approaches towards staff inspire creativity, drive & a belief they can be the difference they wish to see.
Believe in people & they will in turn believe in themselves!
This our gift to the team, follow the dream ..........

Social care in 3 steps

Step 1: listen

Step 2: watch

Step 3: learn

Don't over complicate it, social care is easy! People complicate it!

What is care?

Care is defined as......
To be concerned, to make provision or look out for, liking, fondness or affection.

These are often the thoughts & reasons for people who want to work in social care, but to me they don't. If you are looking to have a career in social care, leave those thoughts behind, tear them up & create a new definition;

CARE IS PASSION
CARE IS DESIRE
CARE IS INNOVATIVE
CARE IS CREATIVE
CARE IS SEEING BEYOND ANYTHING YOU HAVE KNOWN OR BEEN TOLD BEFORE
CARE IS FIRE IN YOUR BELLY
CARE IS A MOTIVATOR FOR CHANGE, CHANGE THAT KEEPS ON MOVING FORWARD, REMOVING BOUNDARIES, KNOCKING DOWN WALLS & CREATING NEW UNEXPLORED LANDS WHERE NO PERSON HAS DARED TO TREAD BEFORE

DARE TO DREAM?

THEN MAKE IT HAPPEN, CHANGE LIVES & CHANGE YOUR OWN FOREVER

Labels

Things that need labels.............


   

And those that don't........

     

An alternative one page profile

One page profiles are a fantastic way of getting to know the real person, understanding who they are, seeing the world through their eyes.........

This is an extract from an alternative one page profile.......

There's a window on the world many don't get to see, 

A vision of life, dreams, passions, laughter and glee.

I grew from a child with desires full to the brim,

A heart full of creation, unconditional free from sin.

The sun would shine almost each and every day,

A glorious wonder filling me with joy in every way.

Happiness was my drug of choice, way back then,

If I could, if you would let me, I'd do it all again.

So many things, sights, sounds, smells, I remember them all,

Like playing in the ruins, roaring like soldiers, fighting, standing tall,

Like me grandma cooking stovies and the kettle on the fire,

The soot from the coal, the flames dancing, growing higher.

The outside toilet, the bath on the living room floor,

The sirens blaring outside, preparing us for war.

Nothing could stop us, we'd seen it all before

So come for me now, you know nothing of me

I'm not the person before you, it's only the dementia that you see

Why do you work in social care

A question I often get asked is why do you work in social care? It's a question I often struggle to answer, not because I don't know why i do, but because it's difficult to explain the drive and motivation, that feeling you get from being part of people's lives, from being given the chance to affect change, it's certainly not the money, those that know me know I have had higher paid jobs, I have had lower paid jobs. I go with what inspires me to make a difference, where can I have the biggest impact?

But this last week or so gave me a real example of why I work in social care, it sums everything up that can't be put into words.............

I have the privilege of working with a person who has been diagnosed with alzheimers vascular dementia, she spent most of her time in her room, isolated and alone. She was labelled as the one who bites and attacks people, don't be alone with her in her room. I was appalled by such labels being given to someone who was obviously scared, confused and anxious at the changes that were happening to her, all whilst being 'medicated' to reduce the behaviour.

I set about making changes, observing team members, monitoring thir interactions, their body language, smells, colours etc. exploring her past alongside relatives, finding out every detail in an attempt to piece together the jigsaw that had become scrambled.

Together we learned, made mistakes, laughed and stamped our feet out of sheer frustration at each other. We made environmental changes, colours in her room, words we used to communicate, sharing facial expressions when words weren't enough, deeper we delved, until we began to understand what was happening.

We discovered a whole new world, together, in partnership......... Slowly we began to understand each other, slowly she began to come out of her room, slowly in her own way, she began to interact with others, slowly the smile on her face began to return, the behaviours growing less and less, until last week when alongside the CPN I decided it was time to withdraw the medication that surpressed some of her 'behaviours'.

This week I saw the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, this week I saw her have physical contact with her daughter which has not happened in over a year.

THAT'S WHY I WORK IN SOCIAL CARE...............................

Social care / control

I often wonder about the words 'social care' and what they imply. For me after 22 years working in 'social care' they suggest a world where people are made to conform, where people have no freedom, no choice or control. Why? Because people living within it have been assessed by professionals as not being able, or indeed incapable, lacking capacity. Therefore society needs to create, monitor and manage a system within which people live / exist. A form of dictatorship if you like, where policy and procedure take precedent over choice, freedom and control.

Once you enter this system your life is never the same, you become a case reference number, to which pounds and pence are assigned; those pounds and pence control the rest of your being. Your life will never be the same.......

Now many professionals will argue that those individuals who find themselves requiring support, are supported in a way that ensures they can maximise their life, independence, choice and control. I would suggest that this is naive at the very least.

The way the system is designed is one which is based upon providing the cheapest option. Most councils will put you out to tender to the cheapest bidder, for between £11 & £12 per hour, if you break this down, by the time an organisation pays their costs to break even (not making a profit), they can only afford to pay minimum wage, this is without having to police check, provide mandatory training each year, supervise and appraise, to ensure quality services are delivered. So where is this choice and control for individuals whom society deems as the most vulnerable? There is no choice when the cheapest will do!

This is why I see social care as a system which creates a reliance to sustain its own existence, to ensure people continue to need and rely upon services, to fulfil the need of others, satisfying their own altruistic needs.

Just look at the reversal of thinking in learning disability services if you need proof - going from promoting and supporting independent supported living, to seeing local authorities now going back 15 years and heralding the rebuilding residential care units / villages as the future - to coin a well known phrase from the book 'asylum' - '........where a large number of like situated individuals, cut off from wider society....together, lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life....'  it is CONTROL!

The only time this will ever change is when so called professionals remove their heads from their dark excrement filled passages and stop controlling people's lives!

Person centred control!

There are many in social care who profess to be innovators, life changers, transformationalists etc. etc. they create words, strap lines, or even documents like ripping a page from a diary and calling it life changing, these are 'PERSONALISATION / PERSON CENTRED THINKING EXPERTS'

Huh?

In the world of social care there is a place some call service land, where people who are labelled as 'needy' exist so they can have things done to them or for them, this is because they are seen by those in the know as not being 'capable'.

It's a world society has created; shameful yes, especially in our modern day world, BUT, look a little deeper and these so called experts in person centred approaches are creating a land within service land. A land which creates more conditions, more controls, more measures by mapping out what you will do, how you will do it, what time you need to get up & how much will it cost? what time you need to get dressed & how much will it cost? what time you need wipe your backside & how much will it cost? (get the picture?) you write it all down so the world and his wife knows every last detail of your life, parents, social workers, commissioning managers, panels, financial assessment teams, service providers, social care staff etc. etc. then they sign it off & say there you go, this puts you in control!! Well as long as its within budget, staff turn up on time, you don't dare change your mind & decide you want want to wipe your backside at that time (bit harsh maybe, but not far from the truth).

In reality they are in control of you and they are making money from you, selling these bits of paper & words for substantial amounts of money & then blog & tweet about how great they are, doing this for the greater good, while the rest of us, the real people just get on with it! Seeing what the day brings, letting people make choices when they want to & not have to think ahead for the next 6 months, because the bit of paper on my wall says I have to.

I'm not completely cynical & think person centred approaches are bad, the approaches are much needed, I just think the bandwagon is now overladen & these experts have stopped seeing people because they have another book or product to sell.

So I don't care what you call it, or what pictures or words you come up with, you carry on placing further control on people's lives......... Me? I'll see what tomorrow brings & i'm going to put a pretty bow on it & sell it to the highest bidder..................... ;-)



So here's a novel approach to be person centred, why don't we just get on with it? Let people live their lives the way they want without having to write a prescriptive list