How can I better engage the consumer and family communities when planning a collaborative initiative? |
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8/17/2010 12:42pm
If anyone has ideas about successfully engaging family members during a colloborative initiative, I would love to hear from you! |
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8/17/2010 7:57pm
Your question is a common one that most localities face in planning if they truly want consumer and family input and success of their project. My relevant planning experience is primarily with adults and their families but I believe that there is commonality with regards to obtaining family input that can contribute to the planning process. Sometimes family members who want to be part of the planning process come with a very specific agenda that may or may not be the focus of the planning effort. Some of this passion comes from feeling righteously angry about how their loved has fared in our imperfect treatment and support systems. Finding the family members who have the ability to see beyond their personal issues and can take in the larger picture can be challenging. First and most obvious would be to work with the local chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) to see if they have family members who have experiences that will contribute to your effort to make the system better. I have found that family members who have completed the 12 week “Family to Family” program have addressed their anger with the system and are better prepared to participate in planning. You may still want to create a joint interview process between your agency and the NAMI chapter. There are other issues that would also need to be dealt with in order to introduce them into your planning process but my above comments are a start. I hope that this is helpful. Please feel free to continue this conversation. C. Terence McCormick, MSW, MPA |
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Assessing Disability Barriers |
8/26/2010 9:46pm
I would like to add one agenda I have experienced as a patient in several mental health facilities starting in the late 1950s, as a DOC consumer in the 1960s, witnessed in others for my twenty nine years of sobriety, and while I investigated alleged neglect and abuse of people with disabilities after the turn of the century. Back then I was the family scapegoat. I was told and believed everything that was wrong in my family was my fault and I lived down to their expectations of me. I received shock treatments when I told my mother she could not hit me any more. I was never allowed to confront my pedophile grandfather. As bad as my childhood was, it was a walk in the park compared to the stories I have listened to in those mental wards, jails, prison and 5th Steps. Today I would be the target patient of a dysfunctional family. All systems strive to maintain homeostasis. The family system is no different. Whether it is conscious or not, the family will, many times, sabotage any efforts the client makes to better themselves because if that happens, the rest of the system has to adjust. I started to make progress when I found mentors who helped me see me through their eyes. They gave me hope for a better life and modeled what courage looked like. They taught me to see the world from a sociological perspective. Life got a lot easier when I only had to feel responsible for my own attitudes, motives, behaviors and outcomes. |
Consultant, Skagit County Juvenile Justice |
9/29/2010 4:22pm
Hi Monica, Just tried to post and think I made a mistake. Hope this doesn’t double post! Anyway, the following has worked in WA state in general: 1) pay family members for their time and expertise I hope this is helpful. It’s been a long haul for us with many ups and downs, but…it’s working. |