Its nine A.M Monday anytime of the year. The program particpants have just arrived at day a program anywhere in the USA and the first thing on the schedule that is typically ignored most of the time, is BREAK. Break from what? A long weekend,the rigourous arrival, the job that most of the people coming to the program don't have. A break from the lack of imagination and respect we don't have for the people who we are here to serve? Hell I don't know, yet it is more common than not that the people we serve have a significant amount of their time wasted in meaningless activity or the waiting game. Waiting for something really cool to happen that usually doesn't arrive. The obligatory craft project,the current events that aren't so current and certainly not an even in the minds of those we serve.
I visited a sheltered workshop many years ago that hosted about 200 people a day. I walked in with my collegue and we observed about fifty people with alleged disabilities reading magazines, well so much for work. But it got worse when the the staff person at the front of the large cold univiting room said, " OK everyone take a break ", we all know how exhausting reading magazines can be and we need coffee to fuel the energy needed to complete the task.
I apoplogize for my easily detectable cynicism. I think we have created a service system that with some great exceptions, wastes those we serve's time way too often. We ask people to wait for things that often don't happen or as a means of control over their day to day lives and a lock on our own creativity. Money is not always the reason that this happens, though we often use it as an excuse to justify time wasting in our programs that are not hitting the note. If I was one of the people allegedly receiving "quality services", I'd be pissed.
We need to rise up to the occasion and in spite of a challenging climate do exeptional work and deliver engaging services that are respectful of the time those we serve have. Create new models. We can do better and we have no reason not to, as this is why we are here,to serve.
Serve well and throw out the magazines,crayons and puzzles, it's a start.
JBG
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
An Education Proposal
The field of human services is currently at a crossroad. The service delivery challenges are becoming greater, more complex and the population more diverse. Financial resources are at a minimum and shrinking. Yet, as we prepare those who choose a future in human services, real pay has and continues to decrease, the educational preparation of skills of those applying for entry level positions, has dipped into an abyss that requires rethinking how education will prepare people for a career in human services.
At the management level we are identifying new managers from a conservative era that promoted status quo services or less than that. The human service field has been maintaining empires rather than the development of progressive services, which actually serve those, identified to have a real need and this has become the accepted norm.
The KOAN Institute for Applied Human Services as a concept proposes radical change in the educational experience for those seeking a career in the field. It is believed that the most effective education occurs in a contextual way when theory is applied to real life situations. People learn best through doing, and most educational programs at the college and graduate levels do not provide students enough opportunity to apply deeply profound theory to the real life challenges consumers face in the delivery of services.
Through a collaborative effort, born out of the belief that we cannot function alone in the delivery of service, we will call on a variety of organizations including, but not limited to, colleges, human service providers, government funding sources, consumers of service and local community and education leaders. They will be asked to form an educational alliance that is designed to meet the prioritized needs of all the players. Most importantly the student will experience a hands on and highly practical education.
The Institute promises to be a dynamic entity that will literally change the way people are prepared to work in the human service field. It will provide an atmosphere based in critical thinking and creative problem-
solving as the prime component of the course of study. Traditional courses will also be offered to assure that the Institute will meet traditional academic standards and cover major theories in psychology, sociology, community organization, and planned social change.
Program Components
1. Classroom Study: Participants in the IFAHS program will be exposed to ample classroom time taught by college level faculty. Courses will include, but not be limited to:
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Social Problems
Introduction to Human Services
Interviewing and Counseling Techniques
Crisis Intervention
Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving
Technical Writing
Psychology of Self
Abnormal Psychology
Special Topics in Mental Health
Special Topics in Developmental Disabilities
Service Delivery Systems
Working with Families
2. Live Instruction: The primary purpose of the Institute is to expose the student to as much hands on experience and instruction as possible. The need to apply classroom learning to actual service delivery systems is the underlying strength of this educational model. Therefore, each student will experience steady and almost daily movement from class to live settings to solidify classroom discussion and learning. Students will receive immediate feedback, instruction and support for their applied portion of the program. Real time instructors will be supplied by host agencies and university affiliated staff, as well as experienced others working in a variety of human service settings with a diverse population.
3. Mentoring: Each student will be assigned to an experienced human service professional for the purposes of developing a mentor relationship. This person will be available for hands on instruction, discussion, counseling and career guidance.
4. Competency Testing: Throughout the program at agreed fixed times the students will be tested in the competency areas they’re trying to build. Their classroom work and applied work will be evaluated and scored, as it would be in a paid human service setting. There will be acceptable levels of scoring as a standard for the student’s performance to be measured by.
5. Standards of Performance: Faculty, students, hosts and mentors will collectively develop standards that measure performance against the competencies each student is working on and as defined by the host providers. Standards for quality, service delivery, human rights, values implementation, paperwork, writing and communication will be developed that incorporate universal and specific elements used to define what an excellent performance should look like.
6. Host Agencies: In order for the Institute to have economic and program viability, provider agencies will join for a fee, define what competencies staff need in their organization, and offer their programs as the applied learning environment for their staff and others to learn in. They in turn will have well trained staff who can apply their learning to actual agency needs and save money in the short and long run by not having a high turnover rate or the need to develop and maintain a large and expensive training program.
7. University/College Affiliation: It is essential that the Institute affiliate with a college to help develop and implement a variety of courses of study. Also the university or college will be the component of the Institute that grants certification and credit for course work that may lead to the continuation of a participants’ personal education.
8. Long Term Project: Each student will be assigned to a study group. The group will examine social problems and decide on one that they would like to address. With guidance from faculty they will collectively develop a formal human service response to the social problem by building a human service from the ground up. This project will help the student to understand the level of work that goes into program development and the kind of intensive thinking and problem solving skills it requires.
9. Additional Seminars: From time to time the Institute will hold seminars, discussions, book reading groups, lead by experts in their particular field of human service delivery.
10. Career Planning/ Job Development: The Institute will develop a career development component, that will have computer access to available databases of jobs, opportunities, trends in hiring and growth areas and provide guidance and counseling when appropriate.
If anybody thinks this is viable training model let me know. Maybe we could form a working community to further develop the model.
Until Then, Serve On.
JBG
At the management level we are identifying new managers from a conservative era that promoted status quo services or less than that. The human service field has been maintaining empires rather than the development of progressive services, which actually serve those, identified to have a real need and this has become the accepted norm.
The KOAN Institute for Applied Human Services as a concept proposes radical change in the educational experience for those seeking a career in the field. It is believed that the most effective education occurs in a contextual way when theory is applied to real life situations. People learn best through doing, and most educational programs at the college and graduate levels do not provide students enough opportunity to apply deeply profound theory to the real life challenges consumers face in the delivery of services.
Through a collaborative effort, born out of the belief that we cannot function alone in the delivery of service, we will call on a variety of organizations including, but not limited to, colleges, human service providers, government funding sources, consumers of service and local community and education leaders. They will be asked to form an educational alliance that is designed to meet the prioritized needs of all the players. Most importantly the student will experience a hands on and highly practical education.
The Institute promises to be a dynamic entity that will literally change the way people are prepared to work in the human service field. It will provide an atmosphere based in critical thinking and creative problem-
solving as the prime component of the course of study. Traditional courses will also be offered to assure that the Institute will meet traditional academic standards and cover major theories in psychology, sociology, community organization, and planned social change.
Program Components
1. Classroom Study: Participants in the IFAHS program will be exposed to ample classroom time taught by college level faculty. Courses will include, but not be limited to:
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Social Problems
Introduction to Human Services
Interviewing and Counseling Techniques
Crisis Intervention
Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving
Technical Writing
Psychology of Self
Abnormal Psychology
Special Topics in Mental Health
Special Topics in Developmental Disabilities
Service Delivery Systems
Working with Families
2. Live Instruction: The primary purpose of the Institute is to expose the student to as much hands on experience and instruction as possible. The need to apply classroom learning to actual service delivery systems is the underlying strength of this educational model. Therefore, each student will experience steady and almost daily movement from class to live settings to solidify classroom discussion and learning. Students will receive immediate feedback, instruction and support for their applied portion of the program. Real time instructors will be supplied by host agencies and university affiliated staff, as well as experienced others working in a variety of human service settings with a diverse population.
3. Mentoring: Each student will be assigned to an experienced human service professional for the purposes of developing a mentor relationship. This person will be available for hands on instruction, discussion, counseling and career guidance.
4. Competency Testing: Throughout the program at agreed fixed times the students will be tested in the competency areas they’re trying to build. Their classroom work and applied work will be evaluated and scored, as it would be in a paid human service setting. There will be acceptable levels of scoring as a standard for the student’s performance to be measured by.
5. Standards of Performance: Faculty, students, hosts and mentors will collectively develop standards that measure performance against the competencies each student is working on and as defined by the host providers. Standards for quality, service delivery, human rights, values implementation, paperwork, writing and communication will be developed that incorporate universal and specific elements used to define what an excellent performance should look like.
6. Host Agencies: In order for the Institute to have economic and program viability, provider agencies will join for a fee, define what competencies staff need in their organization, and offer their programs as the applied learning environment for their staff and others to learn in. They in turn will have well trained staff who can apply their learning to actual agency needs and save money in the short and long run by not having a high turnover rate or the need to develop and maintain a large and expensive training program.
7. University/College Affiliation: It is essential that the Institute affiliate with a college to help develop and implement a variety of courses of study. Also the university or college will be the component of the Institute that grants certification and credit for course work that may lead to the continuation of a participants’ personal education.
8. Long Term Project: Each student will be assigned to a study group. The group will examine social problems and decide on one that they would like to address. With guidance from faculty they will collectively develop a formal human service response to the social problem by building a human service from the ground up. This project will help the student to understand the level of work that goes into program development and the kind of intensive thinking and problem solving skills it requires.
9. Additional Seminars: From time to time the Institute will hold seminars, discussions, book reading groups, lead by experts in their particular field of human service delivery.
10. Career Planning/ Job Development: The Institute will develop a career development component, that will have computer access to available databases of jobs, opportunities, trends in hiring and growth areas and provide guidance and counseling when appropriate.
If anybody thinks this is viable training model let me know. Maybe we could form a working community to further develop the model.
Until Then, Serve On.
JBG
Forget The Money,JL BD
Forget the money as a soultion to the deteriation of the helping profession. I say that because it's obvious it's not coming.Not in these times. Governments are broke, tax papers are fed up, compassion fatigue is at an all time high and it seems that noone is in need of public assistance, not even the people most at risk is the popular, though distorted political view.
So what do we do? How do we as caregivers get better at delivering the services those we support most need and deserve.Well, we first have to think and then learn how to think critically. We need to start thinking because in the electronically numbing world we live in, I beleive communication particularly the art of the conversation is dying quickly. I have seen a breakdown in conveying simple but vitally important information that may be only regarding transporation, but grows into a cascade of mishaps that has destructive impact on an individuals'services. We need to teach all staff first to stop and think about what you are doing, then do it. Better still we as leaders must also teach all staff at all organizational levels, to think critically. We must go on a deconstruction mission to look at what we do, break it down, rebuild an idea or service, change it, see if it works and then throw out all ineffective methods of service delivery and do what really works. No more lip service, let's get it done.
Today October 9, 2010 is John Lennon's 7oth BD. Lennon said "there aren't any problems, only Solutions." This is an excellent way to approach all the challenges we face as service providers and stop stressing and seek soltutions. A solutions based approach to social servies would be quite refreshing. The victimization mentality needs to stop. We are who we are and those we serve need us now more than ever and the money isn't coming soon, unless we move all our services to Wall Street and even then I don't think we would get a piece of the action.
So think!!! And serve on. The days of creative behaviorism, I know best are over let's think together and solve problems together. Now, that's a solution.
Serve On.
JBG
So what do we do? How do we as caregivers get better at delivering the services those we support most need and deserve.Well, we first have to think and then learn how to think critically. We need to start thinking because in the electronically numbing world we live in, I beleive communication particularly the art of the conversation is dying quickly. I have seen a breakdown in conveying simple but vitally important information that may be only regarding transporation, but grows into a cascade of mishaps that has destructive impact on an individuals'services. We need to teach all staff first to stop and think about what you are doing, then do it. Better still we as leaders must also teach all staff at all organizational levels, to think critically. We must go on a deconstruction mission to look at what we do, break it down, rebuild an idea or service, change it, see if it works and then throw out all ineffective methods of service delivery and do what really works. No more lip service, let's get it done.
Today October 9, 2010 is John Lennon's 7oth BD. Lennon said "there aren't any problems, only Solutions." This is an excellent way to approach all the challenges we face as service providers and stop stressing and seek soltutions. A solutions based approach to social servies would be quite refreshing. The victimization mentality needs to stop. We are who we are and those we serve need us now more than ever and the money isn't coming soon, unless we move all our services to Wall Street and even then I don't think we would get a piece of the action.
So think!!! And serve on. The days of creative behaviorism, I know best are over let's think together and solve problems together. Now, that's a solution.
Serve On.
JBG
Saturday, October 2, 2010
What's In it for Me?
Why do people enter the helping professions? I don't know would be the humble and most accurate answer. However, I wanted to raise the issue of what do we the helper get out of the relationship of helping those labelled client or the people we presume to be less fortunate than us due to a cultural construct that tell us so. It is also helpful to know in our minds that there are people less foretunate than us, which is one thing that is dervied from the helping realtionship. That we are better, and therefore we can show you how to get better by being just like us. A bit egotistic or maybe more so, super-egotistic in the name of image making.
I believe that a significant number of helping relationships are based in a clinical manner on counter-transferenc. In other words, we often become dependent on those we serve and support to get our own needs met. There are many people in the helping profession who have significant unresolved personal issues like the general pubilc does. However, we need to resolve some of these issues or at least think and be aware of them so as we help others who may have simialr issues to resolve, we don't muddy the water with our own stuff.
Primarily the point I wanted to make is that it is nice to be needed and when we feel we are not needed in other apsects of our lives, we can turn to those we help so we can get our needs met by them allegedly needing us. I think their need of us is often over exaggerated and that we build this need by creating more dependency on us as helpers by reenforcing there helplessness.
So we need to always be questioning ourselves and our motivation for what we are doing in the name of service to help others. Is it helping us more and if so how can we reel that back and focus on the individual and what there real needs are. If we do this then we should help those we work for to need us less and less. Isn't that the best measure of our success?
Serve on.
JBG
I believe that a significant number of helping relationships are based in a clinical manner on counter-transferenc. In other words, we often become dependent on those we serve and support to get our own needs met. There are many people in the helping profession who have significant unresolved personal issues like the general pubilc does. However, we need to resolve some of these issues or at least think and be aware of them so as we help others who may have simialr issues to resolve, we don't muddy the water with our own stuff.
Primarily the point I wanted to make is that it is nice to be needed and when we feel we are not needed in other apsects of our lives, we can turn to those we help so we can get our needs met by them allegedly needing us. I think their need of us is often over exaggerated and that we build this need by creating more dependency on us as helpers by reenforcing there helplessness.
So we need to always be questioning ourselves and our motivation for what we are doing in the name of service to help others. Is it helping us more and if so how can we reel that back and focus on the individual and what there real needs are. If we do this then we should help those we work for to need us less and less. Isn't that the best measure of our success?
Serve on.
JBG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)