„User involvement / participation“ Eurodiaconia Social Services Working Group Meeting Brussels (Eurodiaconia offices) 19th February – 20th February 2009

Silesian Diacony provides its services to: Number of clients: No. of contacts: No. of contacts: No. of interventions: No. of interventions: No. of employees: 462 No. of employees: 462 No. of registered services: 94 No. of registered services: 94 Silesian Diacony is: Silesian Diacony is: Charity organization established in 1990 byCharity organization established in 1990 by Silesian Evangelic Church of the Augsburg ConfessionSilesian Evangelic Church of the Augsburg Confession Based on Christian principles Provides social and social-health services to people with intellectual disabilities, seniors, homeless people, and to all who got into difficult situations in lifeBased on Christian principles Provides social and social-health services to people with intellectual disabilities, seniors, homeless people, and to all who got into difficult situations in life

Brief Overview of Users Involvement in Slezska Diakony The goals of Slezska Diakonie are:  To provide Quality Service  To give users an opportunity to get actively involved in the whole process instead of being passive receivers of our services - Quality Standards of social services are very good ways to get clients involved  A user plays a key role in the beginning, during process, as well as at the end of the service  The whole system is focused on the users

In Silesian Diacony we have established Quality Standards of Social Services and we proceed in this manner:  At the beginning there is a discussion with a person interested in a service  In case, that a person interested in the service wants to prosper from our service, then we make a contract then we make a contract  The user plays a key role in the process, the planning, and the course of the service – the individual planning service – the individual planning Individual plans are made with user’s agreement – it is about his/her personal wishes, needs, or goals. The fundamental condition of the individual planning is mutual acting and communication between the user of the service and the key worker. The main instrument is an open dialog. The key worker – in work experience we meet with two concepts: The key worker as a trustee – a relationship between worker and user is forward. The key worker as a case manager – a professional qualification is emphasized. The signification of the key worker for the user: he/she is a person to whom the users can come anytime, he/she understands the users, and he/she can arrange help for them, etc. The role of the key worker – an adviser, a therapist, a person, who seeks and contacts the users of the services, defence counsel.

The individual planning is a process that has individual important moments that are important for the user as well as for the worker. It looks this way: Planning = NAMING THE STAGE OF CHANGE AND PLAN OF ITS ACHIEVEMENT Realization of the plan = WORK TOGETHER Evaluation = REVISION OF PLANS End of support Inquiry of a situation UNDERSTANDING

Other examples of involving users into the system of Silesian Diacony:  The users know their rights; they know what they are entitled to and vice versa, and what duties result from interrelation. and what duties result from interrelation.  They participate on creation of quality standards of social services along with workers of the organization workers of the organization  They express their opinion to the quality of services – for instance in a form of questionnaires. questionnaires.  They are informed about who and in what way is going to take care of their complains. Complains are a feedback for the provider – an instrument for improving complains. Complains are a feedback for the provider – an instrument for improving quality of service. quality of service.  External inspectors, who take care of users´ satisfaction with the service, lead discussions with the users at every consultation, audit, or inspection. discussions with the users at every consultation, audit, or inspection.

This set up system is a result of implementation of quality standards of social services in our organization. The aim of the standards is to assure protection of rights and freedoms, to support equal access to education, work, and services, as well as full-value life. We have been implementing standards in Silesian Diacony since In the whole Czech Republic there has been a duty to implement standards since The Act of social services came into effect that year. This Act legally governs standards as a norm for the quality service. We are able to implement the standards thanks to consultations that happen with external inspectors. There are happening several types of consultation (e.g. One day consultation, Sequential consultation, Developing plans, Audits) in Silesian diacony, and for each type there is an independent methodology. Since 2007 there has been happening in the whole Czech Republic evaluation of fulfilment of standards of social services with the help of inspections (according to the Act of social services) done by the regional authorities. The inspections have a character of state control, and they have a 3 day duration. The Silesian diacony has already passed 3 inspections, every time with a success. The next inspection is going to happen in April. Set Up the System of Our Policy

The Training for Staff Worker of Silesian Diacony has educational plan in a connection to his/her qualification and targeted group of users. People in our organization participate in courses organized by Silesian Diacony as well as those organized by other institutions. In the past period we were organizing within our sector seminars with these topics: - Education of persons with learning disabilities - Conflict of interest - Personal goals in counselling - Restrictive actions - Personal standards - Individual planning for shelter housing - Autism, Asperg syndrome - Care for eldery people with mental disabilities - Christian principles in social services -and others Workers can also take prosper from the offer of seminars and courses organized by Diacony Institute – educational institution established by Silesian Diacony.

The Main Benefits of the Policy The main contribution is: From the view of the centres – providers of the services high quality of the service high quality of the service professionalism of the provided services professionalism of the provided services employees professionalism – more specialized knowledge and skills employees´ interest in education in the area of quality process of providing services an its risks (defined in writing)  user’s satisfaction – active involvement of users  team cooperation – all workers and users take part in creating standards  exact delimitation of workers, users, and family members competences From the view of Silesian Diacony:  good image, reputation  excellent results during inspections  realization of contracts for other providers that are focused on support with implementing quality standards of social services, and training in the area of quality standards in social services

The Main Difficulties in Implementing of the Policy When setting up the system it was important to bring a change in workers´ and users´ opinions (especially those, who used to be clients of big institutional facilities in the past). Therefore motivation and support from the management of the organization played an important role (there was no directive approach). Our workers received time to become aware of the purpose and the importance of the standards. We appreciated projects when implementing the system. Thanks to the projects we created methodology for implementing quality standards in social services and we set consulting system, which supports individual directors when they implement quality. Consultations happen with the presence of external specialists – inspectors of quality in social services. The projects helped us to realize many training, seminars, conferences, where our workers received needed information and knowledge that they applied in practice. Since 2002 we have realized a total of 5 project focused on implementing quality in Silesian Diacony; 3 of these projects were financed from the European Union.

The Most Innovative Way of Users Involve  User’s satisfaction is the one of the main goals of Silesian Diacony  Users are integrated and involved to an community  The care is individualized along the user needs and desire  Service user = full-value partner, who knows own rights, he/she freely decides to use different kind of services. He/she chooses among individual providers (this is guaranteed by the Act of social services).  Users have an opportunity to actualize themselves; they can work in supported employment, therapeutic workshops, sheltered workshops. With provider’s support they get involved in community life.  There is an educational system for workers; the centre of interest is always the user

The Lessons We´ve Learned from the Processes and Our Advice to the Others  Support team cooperation, continually motivate workers, receive feedbacks from participating parties, communicate, support informal communication.  Plan the whole process in detail, work a plan (methodology) and use a “method of sequent steps”.  Cooperate with external specialists (they are impartial).  Be open to lifelong education.  Learn self-evaluation of service and subsequent analyzing and improving.  Plan service development.  Share learned information, skills, examples of good practice – educate others.

Thank you for your attention Thank you for your attention Markéta Holková Slezská diakonie Na Nivách Český Těšín Tel.: Mobil: Web: