1. If self-determination is the answer…
Thank you for inviting me to speak
Acknowledgement of traditional owners
Acknowledgment of LE leaders who have paved the way for us - especially in the areas of self determination, self management and personal control.
I wondering how many people would be interested in having
More energy at work
Feeling lighter
Not feel so responsible for people’s actions
Having a clarity about your work
Be led by TL that were able to articulate your collective work and focuss
Be creative together as a team
I am passionate about promoting opportunities for people to experience full control of their lives - ultimately lead their life and not be led. I take it you share my passion as well since you have come to a conference on ‘choice and control’. Having control and autonomy is a basic human need, it goes beyond rights, none of desire to be out of control – our lives deteriorate very quickly if we did not have control of our bodies,…..
We have a natural desire to regain control and have to have a level mastery and competence about that....
I came across the importance of self determination early in my journey of accessing mental health services. You only really appreciate the value and importance of something when you no longer have it . Story of Dr O’Brien with the MHA.
It is about control, mastery and relatedness
What I appreciated was that it was going to take effort to get it back and a willingness for someone to find ways to help me do that.
Lesson: Being able to self determine more than simply having a choice or preference. Outside of the actual symptoms that lead to a mental illness there is are other commonalities in the experience: by the time we come into contact with a helping service/professional we have usually lost capacity to fully self determine, be in control, have mastery over aspects of our lives and to be in relationship with others. If we had these things then it is most probable we wouldn’t be trying to access a service .
It takes effort beyond our comfort zone
Doing ordinary thing well does not increase our sense of personal control
Yet failing ordinary everyday things does decrease it
Having a challenge, a stretch beyond what we are currently capable of and succeeding gives us a greater sense of I rock, me Power, I can do this. We don’t need to do it alone … this is where systems of support have a great opportuntity to be much more than focussed on erradicating mental distress.
Recently I was on a plane- it is where I have my best conversations with total strangers. To cut a long story short , I was reading this book ‘ adaptive leadership’ by Ron heifetz… trying to make sense of his thinking about system change. The eprosn sitting next to me was a distinguished gentleman , reading his own work. I had already summed up that
He asked me a really important question:
Why is fostering opportunities for personal choice and control in systems of care so challenging?
We might not believe that people with significant mental health issues can or want to self direct
Systems have been set up to manage – no current program set up with determination as an outcome- care coordinators/ case managers
Competing commitments and values
Letting go and resisting old ways
Our why may be short focused to management and symptom reduction
… What would services be spectacular at

2. Feel lighter
Have more energy
Have a clear focus of our work, the team’s work and the program’s work
Feel productive, creative
Be guided by team leaders that really know what’s important about your collective work
Know your work has meaning and impact on other people’s lives
See people go onto do great things

3. I am a Taurean
My stubbornness will kill me and it is the only thing that has kept me alive
Maryanne story
Wanting to be in control
We are not trained that way
Self determination is more than just having choices
SD is our ability to utilise our personal mastery and agency to meet our needs
If we limit SD to thinking it is just about giving and responding to people’s choices then it is likely we will end up with this… cartoon percentred care

4. Beyond a right
Personal control, autonomy, competence are human needs
and yet form time to time we need help to meet them

5. Why do people come to MH services?
What is it that they want to get spectacularly good at
What do they want to leave with that they haven’t come with
What beliefs do we hold about people's capacity to reclaim a life beyond the impacts of mental illness
How do we understand our role in that

6. I believe that ultimately the experience of significant mental-ill health to be ….?
Life
Defeating
Life Enabling/
Transforming
Before getting to that I would like us to consider a question

7. What is the core reasons mental health services are funded?
Provide intentional opportunities so that people can self determine & lead their life beyond adversity and beyond services.
Provide services that ensure people are kept safe, comfortable, well looked after and cared for.
Before getting to that I would like us to consider a question
not one program that has a focussed on these outcomes

8. Every program having case management or care coordination as a central tenant

9. What we know that helps a person sense of mastery and control
Doing ordinary things well doesn’t increase a sense of control and mastery
Yet failing in our everyday ordinary things does detract from our personal sense of control and mastery
Experiencing greater control and mastery comes from challenging ourselves a little outside the comfort zone.
CMHRS : learn try stretch coaching design
Challenge to be public : I rock

10. ME- EM
POWER
We have talked about empowering people for a long time-I am wondering whether we need to stretch that concept.

11. Individual immunity
Organisational immunity
Program design immunity
Story of Rick
Competing commitments
What will we continue to do fail our intention of SD, Control , mastery
We could continue to not see the person as the leader and for us to do everything
We could have meetings without people present
We could talk to third party people without people knowing
We could allow
We need to look competent
We need to ensure our KPI’s are met
We have been trained to act –
I want to be helpful for people
It is hard enough for people with MI to get on with it – this is asking too much
I haven’t gone to unit to do this – I don’t know how
Our Program KPI’s don’t focus on this

12. Stretch of the both and
we so easily can be pulled off our game and holding this stretch needs constant focus
we need to question it – even when we think it is right

14. Feel lighter
Have more energy
Have a clear focus of our work, the team’s work and the program’s work
Feel productive, creative
Be guided by team leaders that really know what’s important about your collective work
Know your work has meaning and impact on other people’s lives
See people go onto do great things

16. “ It might not be easy & it may be worth it” ( Heifetz)
A Call to Action…
“ It might not be easy & it may be worth it” ( Heifetz)

17. Thank You
Helen Glover