Michael J. Kendrick PhD
Kendrick Consulting Services
4 Bullard Ave., Holyoke, MA
USA 01040
Tel/fax 413 533 3511/ mob 413 575 8522
Communication
To:…………
From: Michael J. Kendrick
Date: October2006
Re: Your Assistance in the course on Individualised Service Design
Thank you for your interest in our upcoming course on Deep Quality Through Individualised Service Design. It is a course that has beencreated because of the difficulty many people are experiencing in obtaining service arrangements that are both truly individualised and relevant to what people actually need. The course hopes to assist people to better partner with service users and their families so that better quality options are more likely to develop.
The course is open to service providers, service users and their families, advocates, funders, civil servants, agency staff, clinicians, budget analysts and others who may want to develop their skills in designing services that are entirely “tailor made” to suit an individual. It is our hope that with a larger number of people trained and encouraged to think in terms of “person centred” service models we will gradually see more such options come into being. “Person centred” means that the arrangements that are developed are highly attuned to the person who needs them.
In order to make this collaboration as authentic as is possible, weinvite individuals, (“volunteer course assistants”) who may be personally interested in having an individualised service arrangement for themselves, to work closely on a consultative basis with a small team from the course. The aim is for the team to develop an individualised proposal with considerable guidance and input from the practicum assistant, and to modify the proposal based on whether it actually meets the needs of the person concerned.
This proposal development is always done on a completely confidential basis, and the only people who will meet the practicum assistant will be the team members. The design team will be no more than three persons guided on occasion by a course supervisor.
The proposals will largely take up the question of what it is that you most need and want in your life and the kind of goals and lifestyle you aspire to. It will explore what is most important to you, what is required by way of support to make this happen, how this support should best be offered, what safeguards make sense and what might be the budgetary and administrative arrangements that are likely to be most helpful. The ideas involved are kept as rough notes and no permanent record of them will be kept unless you wish for that to occur. If it is your preference to have a record then we can either provide these in a written form or have them tape-recorded, or both. That tape will be yours, and no copy will be held by anyone else. All notes taken by the team that are not in your possession will be destroyed at the end of the course.
Since it is a training exercise, it is not always possible to predict whether the proposals that eventually get developed will be entirely satisfactory to the voluntary course assistants but every effort will be made to help this be the case. One key safeguard in this regard is that the volunteers will meet with the team at least five times to give guidance and insight, and to react to what the team is developing at each stage. These meetings will occur at a place that is convenient to you, such as your home or other pleasant place to meet. The meetings will be entirely confidential, and last no more than an hour to two hours at the most, unless you want the meetings to go longer. All team members will have signed a confidentiality form.
The meetings will normally take place in the late afternoon or early evening, and at a time that is convenient to you. This schedule of meetings will be finalised between you and the team as the course goes along. The team’s work will result in an overall proposal for an individualised service design that will be developed in stages. You will be able to help modify it at every stage. This proposal may be of interest to people in addition to yourself such as friends, partners, family, and staff of services that you trust and possibly others such as advocates. Should you want to include any such people; the team will also attempt to interview and include them.
The dates for the course are 23rd – 27th October 2006 (week 1) and 20th – 24th November 2006 (week 2). Oneither the 21st or 22nd October, 2006and possibly the 19th November, the two course leaders will visit briefly to introduce themselves and see if there is anything they can do to help make your participation in the event more satisfying for you or others. Attached is a copy of the schedule for the course with the approximate times when consultations with the volunteers will take place.
We recognize that in order to make this course as effective as possible we must rely on the goodwill of people willing to open up their lives to some degree. We are very grateful that this desire to assist exists, and we will do everything within our ability to make this experience a positive one for you. If you are willing to help, please contact Jane Sherwin on 07 3870 1022 and we will make the necessary arrangements.
Thank you for your assistance and interest.
Sincerely,
Michael Kendrick
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