Webinar update and questions from Kansas

Yesterday we concluded the series of Webinars we conducted for members of InterHab of Kansas. 14 member agencies and over 200 employees participated in the series. The series consisted of four different topics over four consecutive Thursdays.

From all accounts they were successful. During them we invited attendees to email us with questions, etc. What follows are three such emails. They will give you an idea of the things that are on people’s minds.

I have removed or changed names. (It was simpler than contacting everyone and asking them for permission to use their names.)

The first one starts out Dr. Suess. For the record I do not possess that degree and I subsequently and gently clarified that with the sender.

Email # 1

Dr. Suess, I work for ABC Organization in Kansas and have participated in the last three Thursdays. My name is John Doe and I have enjoyed the sessions. The discussions have reinforced concepts we have been practicing as well as providing different strategies for working with unique individuals. Your basic assessment and development tool has many of the same indicators we use in staff evaluations and I can see the training from last week enhancing that process.

My questions for you have to do with something you and your staff touched on during last week's discussion. It was stated that staff's personal values need to be set aside and the personal values of the person served should be the focus. I agree with this statement, however, I also know this is an area that we have struggled with for years - how did your organization get staff to set aside their personal values when planning with persons served? How did you make the shift to keep the personal values of staff, family, friends, guardians etc. from infringing on the choices of persons served? How did you convince colleagues to make this change and accept choices of persons served that they may not agree with or disapprove of?

I do not know if this is something you could touch on tomorrow or not - I would appreciate hearing from you regardless.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

We were able to spend a few moments discussing this during yesterday’s webinar. We made the point that we see this as an important, and regrettably common, problem. The initial key point for us lies not in the staff person’s values, nor even the consumer’s but rather in the organization’s values. If these are not clear and affirmed we won’t get very far. Most organizations have a value statement that goes something like “the people we support come first.” That’s good but the questions become: Do we mean it? Do staff know we mean it? How do we know? How much time do we spend defining and explaining what this means to each of us in our daily actions.

Truly believing the other person comes first is the first step in dealing with such values conflicts. That’s why we spend so much time in the interview process trying to determine if people truly do share our values of if they are just looking for a pay check. Our interviews are extensive, 3 interviews, 3 hours each, in 3 settings with at least 3 different people involved at each interval.


This extensive process results in hiring people who start the job with similar values. That makes all the difference in the world. We firmly believe in the adage: hire for values, train for skills. We also invited the person to contact us if (s)he wanted more information on this topic.


Email # 2

Hi George,

You may not remember me. We shared a very nice conversation over a beer (just 1?) at the InterHab Conference in Wichita last October. Although I was unable personally to attend the follow up sessions last November, I was pleased that our trusted colleague, Jane Doe, was able to participate. Of course, as you know, she was thrilled with the experience and has been sharing with the rest of us. I arranged to have about 22 folks (including myself) to participate in the Webinar series. I certainly understand your reaction to the lack of direct feedback to your presentations. While I can speculate that much of that is due to the great job you and your colleagues have done (thus, limited questions), it also feels a bit awkward at our end in the Webinar format. That’s not a good excuse for remaining silent, but perhaps a realistic explanation. I was pleased with the positive comment at the end of yesterday’s session from the person at XYZ Organization, and regretted that I did not do the same. For that, I apologize.

After our experiences with you at the InterHab Conference and the follow up in Wichita, we at QRX Organization (Executive Leadership Team) decided that we wanted to follow up with you regarding our own initiative to positively impact our support culture in our day and residential service settings, as well as with our service coordination and clinical support staff. My “plan” was to participate in the Webinar series first in order to help us better define what we might want to discuss with you. While budgets are tight (no surprise, huh), we do have a small donation fund allocated to support our Direct Support Professionals. We thought what better support than to make “Shift Happen” for them and their support recipients! That said, you can anticipate hearing back from us within a month or so to explore how we might best benefit from a collaboration. Since I want to be a personal participant, the delay is due in part to our scheduled contract discussions with the state of Kansas.

All of us at QRX are looking forward to the final session of the Webinar Series, and certainly the next steps of our shift. We will be back in touch with you soon.

Regards, Joe Doe

I responded that I was very pleased to hear from them and will be ready when they are.

Email # 3

George,

I have been a participant in your Shift Happens through LMNOP County the past three weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed the different topics, I wish I had service providers in my area that share your beliefs and values. As you can see I am a social worker, but more importantly I am the mother of a special needs adult son. He is autistic, non-verbal, and has seizures, and I have a question. I am in the unique position of helping an agency that is also taking part in Shift Happens, HIJ Organization (hopefully learning as they go), in building a day program that would best serve my sons needs as well as the other residents participating in the day program.

My question, as we are moving through this process, is it possible to secure a conference call with your staff to brain storm ideas and starting points for the program and revisit as we progress through the process, drawing on you and your staff for resources through e-mail contacts. I would love to have a chance to talk with you and your staff and learn how to best develop a new program.

Thank you for your time, look forward to hearing from you soon,

I responded that we would be glad to participate in such a conference call and to assist in any way we can.

These exchanges are wonderful. It’s so good to be involved with people who take their responsibilities so seriously. Please join them and send us your questions or requests.