Great to read this from Reflection of Practice from Social Work Scotland which describes the Appreciative Inquiry work we did with NHS Highland and The Highland Council.
Over 100 days - as part of a pilot for a new SDS self-evaluation process - we defined, discovered, dreamed, and designed what social care could look like in Highland through self-directed support. In the months since then we've been working on how it could be delivered.
What did we learn?
- that people can get stuck in complex and bureaucratic systems, but there are backdoors and tricks that people use to be able to get the right support in place. Instead of shutting these down we should explore them and see if we can legitimise them instead.
- that somewhere along the way we've diluted the essence of social work. We've moved away from social workers being someone who can guide and support people, to them becoming people who do transactions. Instead of starting with eligibility we'll start them with a conversation, founded on compassion, care and curiosity on what better could look like.
- that we waste a lot of time putting things into place that we think will be helpful but instead become barriers. Bureaucratic decision making processes take decisions further away from the people who matter.
What's next?
- we're developing a new approach to assessment and eligibility, that sees people and practitioners as equal partners in doing the right thing.
- we're designing neighbourhood care models in rural communities, where traditional service models just don't work, but the people living there know best how to support their own folk.
- we're coproducing collegiate spaces for peer decision making that focus on sharing knowledge and intelligence, rather than cumbersome resource panels.
Read the summary below, or get in touch if you'd like to find out more! Email info@in-controlscotland.org.uk or message Pauline Lunn for a chat.
https://lnkd.in/eVzBEGwX
#selfdirectedsupport #appreciativeinquiry #humanlearningsystems #socialcare #socialwork
Creating a social shift where dementia and other disabilities are no longer seen as the end, but a new phase, in which a great deal of life can still be lived
6moMartin Routledge looking forward to seeing how social care can be reimagined in the UK to allow people to live their best lives. There are pockets of amazing work thats being done and it was really refreshing to see your highlight wellbeing teams. I am involved locally in an fantastic wellbeing team and a cross functional dementia action group. The latter is all about finding solutions to local challenges and then finding ways to implement them if we collectively feel it will make a difference to our local community. The most recent one was instigating a system for GP's to send regular texts to people diagnosed with dementia and their family carers about local services available to support them, so they can explore whats available when they want and not be dependent on the information given on diagnosis or when a crisis is reached