The Council on
Quality and Leadership
By Phil Kuehn, LSS Director of Community
Services
Lutheran
Social Service of Minnesota is highly regarded for providing excellent
support for individuals with developmental disabilities. The stories
featured in this edition provide real life evidence of this. We are proud
that our annual survey indicates a level of satisfaction with our services
that exceeds national industry standards.
But we're
not satisfied. We believe we can do better. And that's why we are
introducing the Council on Quality and Leadership (The Council).
If you were
asked the following questions, how would you respond?
-
What would
you like to be when you grow up?
-
Who are
you? In other words, what makes you unique as an individual?
-
List your
values and/or priorities in life.
While these
questions appear straightforward, providing a thoughtful and substantive
response can be challenging. It is extra challenging when the same
questions are asked of a person with developmental disabilities. Yet, each
of us has hopes, dreams, goals, desires, preferences, likes and dislikes.
Each of us … including those of us who happen to have a developmental
disability.
To a
certain extent, the answers to these questions lie in our ability to
acknowledge that, at present, there really is a difference between "our"
hopes and dreams and "their" hopes and dreams. "We" get to name our hopes
and dreams …. "We" identify them … label them. In addition, "we" need to
acknowledge that we all have choices and opportunities, and if we truly
want to realize our dreams, then we need to act upon choices that are
congruent with those goals.
It's not so
simple with "their" hopes and dreams. We have to be realistic, don't we?
How realistic is it for "them" to dream about accomplishing this or that,
or experiencing something new? Furthermore, it just can't be right for
"us" to string "them" along with unrealistic expectations.
Enter The
Council on Quality and Leadership, an entity working to enhance
accountability, responsiveness and quality performance in human and social
service organizations. As a line of service, Home and Community Living
Services has entered into a formal relationship with The Council, not so
much for the purpose of becoming accredited as a provider of
person-centered supports for individuals with developmental disabilities,
but, more specifically, to do the right things for the people we support.
The Council
has been establishing and evaluating standards of service since the
mid-1960s. They have developed 25 personal outcome measures that represent
the foundation for The Council's accreditation program. These personal
outcomes represent opportunities to choose from options available. Again,
this is a process that you and I simply take for granted and only
seriously consider when they are somehow violated and/or systematically
limited. We have choices. Period. Historically, individuals with
developmental disabilities haven't' had choices. It's not safe to assume
that members of vulnerable populations have had options.
Personal
outcomes are not a measure of program efficiency or effectiveness. Rather,
personal outcomes are centered on the individual and, therefore, challenge
traditional models of service delivery, since these individualized
outcomes often fall outside the scope of more program-based approaches.
That's not to say that traditional indicators of quality such as inputs,
processes, and program outcomes are not important. Personal outcomes
simply focus more on the individualized impact of the outcome of these
processes. In other words, the compelling question becomes something like
this: Do existing mechanisms support the personal realization of an
individual's hopes and dreams?
Such an
emphasis on choices and options forces us to shift our attention not so
much away from programmatic efficiency, but more centrally on the results
of these same efficiencies. Our mechanisms need to reflect the priorities
of the individuals we support. This approach presents new challenges, new
ways of thinking, new ways of operating, new ways of living.
To provide
an environment of person-based options means evaluating everything we have
become skilled at as providers of services for individuals with
developmental disabilities. Instead of asking JUST about safety, we ask
how our safety measures reflect personal outcomes. Instead of JUST asking
about staffing ratios, FTEs, VA's, and financial bottom lines, we must
also ask how each of these items contributes to the realization of an
individual's hopes and dreams. The new approach means rethinking our
understanding of "our" own role in "their" lives. It means challenging the
use of labels such as "ours" and "theirs" and "clients" and "consumers" so
that we recognize, accept, and respect each person for the unique
individuals we all are, the way all people expect certain fundamental
respect.
Each LSS
employee will have a role in this new endeavor. From the hands-on aspects
of our direct support professionals to others in supportive or
administrative functions, all will have a vital parts in assuring that
these individuals have the support needed to experience a quality of life
that the rest of "us" simply take for granted.
The Council
will help "us" get there faster than we could by ourselves.
