Optimal Individual Service Design is a two week co-facilitated course that has been offered in many countries with excellent feedback from participants, who have said they came away informed, transformed and with a new sense of purpose and the training to allow them to accomplish new goals for those they care about.    In effect, there is the two week course, for thirty participating trainees, and there are ten focal people who work with small teams through the two weeks to create plans which are then owned by the individual, and then there are also opportunities to sit at the back of the room while Michael, Lorna and Dennis talk about their own experiences of person-centredness.    Agencies participating in the course are welcome to send others to sit in on these public parts (where private information is not being discussed).   Prior to the course, we will have a schedule for participants and another schedule for those wishing to sit in and learn.   Please let us know if you'd like to receive this (contact info is below).   

Brief Description Of An Intensive Course On “Optimal Service Design”

This course has been developed due to the ongoing difficulty faced by many consumers, families, advocates, staff, funders, and organizations to be able to develop services that are authentically effective in meeting people’s needs, and that can be implemented in relation to conventional organizational conditions. It is commonly the case that people often want this result, but are stymied when it comes to evolving service models and strategies that are both in accord with the person’s needs and viable in the usual bureaucratic environments of services. Of particular interest in the course is the problem of innovation as it relates to the construct of unique service models “from scratch” that may lack local, or even national precedents, to serve as a guide.

The course relies heavily on a framework of analysis first pioneered by Dr Wolf Wolfensberger, of Syracuse University called “model coherency analysis”. This will be combined with many derivatives of this initial work as it relates to quality of service. The event will examine many contemporary subjects pertinent to optimal service including but not restricted to;

•        The nature of quality

•        The role of assumptions in determining needs

•        Establishing fundamentality in needs

•        Meeting needs normatively

•        Defining “person-centredness”

•        Appropriate and supported use of generic and natural supports

•        The role of personal vulnerabilities and intentional safeguards

•        Understanding how empowerment can be put into operation

•        Clarifying pertinent theories and how they are embodied in models

•        Understanding how service design can done jointly “with” consumers, families and cultural groups rather than done “to” or “at” them

•        Costing, structural and management strategies and judgement

•        Serving “difficult to serve” persons

•        Building in the capacity to modify service practice on an ongoing basis

•        Exploring the ethics of “right relationship”

•        Searching for answers in people’s lives on an ongoing basis rather than having them “once and for all”

This workshop on individual design has come about due the increasing demand for more choices and options for service users and their families. Despite considerable agreement that such choices should be available, both the systems of funding and provider practice itself have tended to favour the replication of existing and conventional models of service. This is understandable given that the crafting of “one off” /“developed from scratch” options are initially quite a bit more difficult to produce on a regular basis.

This event has been developed to give practitioners who are well disposed to individualized solutions i.e. “person centred options”, the opportunity to go through the actual stages of thinking, judgement and decision-making that are involved in creating meaningful person centred results. This is achieved by several methods.

The first is a rather rigorous orientation of the participant to the wide range of issues and content that must be examined and mastered if the options that are eventually created are to be enduringly useful and relevant “one person at a time”. This might be thought of as the classroom potion of the course and will naturally involve a considerable amount of reading by participants even before the course has begun.

The second aspect of the course involves preparing a proposal for how to best serve an individual. This is a crucial “practicum” in the course that is intended to very closely parallel the actual processes involved in working with consumers and families that course participants may experience subsequent to the course. In particular, these proposals will “start from scratch” and may well produce results that are highly and uniquely attuned to the individual concerned. Conceivably, these proposals may emerge in innovative directions that are well at variance with conventional service practice and models. This individual supports proposal development will be done in several stages of formulation followed by formal critique and revision at each stage. The full “polished” proposal will extensively involve and be shared with the people concerned, notwithstanding the limits of the course.

Each course participant will be part of a small work group that has as its task the formulation of a individual supports proposal that is intended to be as optimal as possible for a given individual and his/her family and friends. These individuals have volunteered for this role of serving as a practicum example in the hope of gaining some insights as to what might be some advantageous ideas to consider for their future. As a further part of the course, all of the individual proposals will be critiqued as they take shape, with the idea of improving the content and thinking of each proposal. This will give participants not only the experience of developing their own proposal, but also participating to some degree in the formulation of other proposals. Naturally, these proposals are all confidential as per the wishes of the people concerned.

The course is divided into two parts of five days each. The first five-day session will be January 8 – 13, 2012 and the second will be January 30 – February 3rd, 2012. The course will be quite intensive and demanding for the participant, as each participant will be expected to work in a very concentrated and rigorous manner. On occasion, there will be evening work of one kind or another, including reading, group work, community visits and other such activities.

Why Is This Intensive Training Needed?

This specialized training is needed because of the difficulty being faced within many service organizations, and by funding authorities, in being able to respond with a coherent programme to the many increasing demands that there be individualized service options made available to people that are;

•Largely under the control of individuals and their families

•Designed with the individual and their family “from the ground up”

•Innovative

•Effective

•Affordable

•Easily brought on stream and managed by conventional organisations

•Able to serve persons thought to be “extreme” or “difficult to serve”

•Personalized in their address of needs

•Utilizing an appropriate balance of natural and paid supports

Who Is This Intensive Training Course For?

This intensive program of training is designed for the most able and promising of staff, consumers, families, managers and professionals. The participant can expect to participate directly and indirectly in the development of actual service models from the beginning. This will involve intensive analytic and development work, and can be quite demanding for individuals who are unused to having their work closely scrutinized and publicly evaluated. It will also require that the person be capable of returning home after the event and be able to take on significantly difficult service design tasks and complete them successfully. Naturally, persons with extensive and credible familiarity with the needs, perspectives and challenges facing consumers and families will have an easier time with this course. People unable to readily work outside the confines of conventional service models and bureaucratic systems will probably find this course much too difficult as it requires the participant to imagine arrangements that might well be novel and unprecedented and therefore difficult to negotiate into existence and regular operation.

Due to the intensity of the event, the inherent challenges of the task, and the cost to both participants and sponsoring organizations, it is normally recommended that only the most able be supported to attend. This does not mean, however, that promising novices cannot attend, as this event will provide sound preparation for good quality long- term contributions. Rather, it is to caution people to be very selective in supporting attendance to ensure that the

event is a good match for prospective participants. Of particular importance will be the capacity of the individual to understand people and their needs, and to maintain a disciplined focus as to what will actually meet those needs.

What Service Fields/Sectors Does This Apply To?

This event will be largely focussed on the fields of disability, mental health and aged care, though the material used will have broader applicability and would interest many other fields. Nonetheless, the “fieldwork” portion of the event will draw on examples from these fields.

What Are The Limits Of The Course?

This course is timely as it addresses the technical and human foundations that constitute the core capacities that need to be present if unique individualized options are to more routinely be developed and available to people seeking them. It is clearly not enough to speak of this at the level of rhetoric, yet fail to generate the actual options that live up to this promise.

No short two-week course can properly prepare people for the many challenges involved in optimal individual service design. Prowess with this task can only come through continual practice and learning from the errors, failures, surprises and enigmas that come with trying to be faithful to individual people and their lives. While a short course can help with this process, it is better seen as an initial orientation to the issues involved. The issues are ever-present, and will be routinely revisited in endlessly unexpected ways.

It is also quite probable that the participants may return to service settings in which only a modest amount of moral and organizational support presently exists for many aspects of desirable practice. Conceivably, training of this kind may actually heighten these challenges, and the difficulties that come with them. This is to be expected given that many service providing organizations are finding it quite a struggle to change the way they provide services.

It is also true that individual participants each have their own strengths and limits, and they may consequently vary in the degree to which they are “suited” to this kind of work, particularly at this stage in history. No course can make up for what individuals lack, though it can be expected to build on what they bring. This should be taken as a caution to give some thought as to who should be selected to attend this course, as there clearly will be individuals for whom the course is a better match.

Getting Your Individual Questions Answered Prior To Beginning The Course

As can be expected, a given person considering participating in the course may have any number of questions that will help them decide whether to attend. To make this easy we are providing you with contact people that you can reach in advance and have your questions dealt with both confidentially and uniquely. We encourage you to make this contact, as it is an essential process in ensuring that the course is the right one for people.

It is also a crucial way in which potential participants can make their own unique needs known to us as it relates to their ability to fully and satisfactorily participate. It may not always be possible for the course to easily accommodate to the individual needs of participants, but it is important for us to at least attempt to take these into account and see what might be possible. Naturally, the earlier we are made aware of these needs the better.

The course is being hosted by Spectrum Society. They are responsible for any logistical, payment and organisational and accommodation issues related to the course. The contact person is:

Name:          Aaron Johannes or Ray Hunter

Telephone:   604-323-1433

Email:aaron@spectrumsociety.org

Ray.hunter@spectrumsociety.org

The course instructors are:

•        Michael Kendrick (Massachusetts, USA)  a great deal of information about Michael’s long history of innovations and involvement in community living can be found at www.kendrickconsulting.org 

Lorna Sullivan is the Chief Executive for Standards Plus, responsible for managing the organisation and its relationships. Lorna has worked in the provision of support for disabled people and families for the past 30 years and has been involved in all aspects of service delivery, design and evaluation from hands on service provision, management and leadership to policy and purchasing, training, development and advocacy.  www.imaginebetter.co.nz

Dennis is one of the founders of In Control Wisconsin. He has been working on the development of self-determination and self-directed supports within Wisconsin and across North America since 1993. At this point in time (2011), Dennis’ primary focus is on helping to deliberately integrate the strengths of the individual and family, our communities, and our service systems. He is currently leading In Control Wisconsin’s initiative to enable all adults who receive long-term care to receive needed support to have a place that looks like, feels like, and is their own home.  www.incontrolwisconsin.org 

Michael Kendrick is not conveniently in Canada, but he is nonetheless available to interested persons to answer any query about the course program itself.

Name:                         Michael Kendrick

Telephone:                 413 533 3511 (USA)

Address:                    4 Bullard Ave., Holyoke, MA USA 01040

Email:                         kendrickconsult@attglobal.net

Web:                           www.kendrickconsulting.org

Note: Since each course participant will be assigned to a different team, it is important to not make arrangements to car pool with other course participants until it is clear which team you will be on.

A Detailed Day-By-Day Course Schedule will be provided.  

It is expected that all participants will attend the entirety of the course notwithstanding unforeseen emergencies. The final detailed course schedule will be sent to registered participants prior to beginning the course.

Thank you to B.C.A.C.L. for the use of their meeting room for this event.