The ‘Home Care Today’ project ran from 2013 to June 2017. COTA Australia continues to provide access to Home Care Today resources which were current at June 2017. However they are no longer monitored or updated, and information may not be current.
Constructive Conversations with Consumers that Promote Consumer Direction
Home Care Today has engaged CommunityWest to develop a series of learning resources that you can use to assist your staff to engage in conversation with consumers using the CDC principles.
The introduction of the Consumer Directed Care approach in the Commonwealth Home Care Package program requires practitioners to interact with consumers in a different way. Home Care practitioners, as professionals, are accustomed to leading conversations. Now, the CDC approach requires practitioners to be facilitators allowing consumers to be in charge of the process.
As a result, providers have identified the need to assist professionals to change the way they interact in conversation with consumers and the need for organisations assess how they develop skills and supports for such conversations to occur. This includes staff orientation, training, supervision, documentation and performance reviews.
The objective of this project is to provide resources for providers to build the capability of their staff to engage in constructive conversations with consumers that will lead to a consumer directed approach. This constructive conversation approach will enable consumer choice and control, facilitate goal-oriented support and restorative care.
The Constructive Conversations with Consumer that Promotes Consumer Direction learning resources will provide you with:
- Identification of the key skills needed to lead constructive conversations
- Four in-service learning modules for case managers/co-ordinators/ advisors
- Trainer’s Manuals and Participants Workbooks to facilitate these learning modules
- Videos, interview examples, consumer stories and reflections.
The Learning Modules
These learning resources are provided for advisers working within community care environments. The aim of these modules is to enable advisors to embrace the thinking, skills and practice (TSP) for transitioning to and working in a Consumer Directed Care (CDC) model. It will provide participants with the knowledge and skills to work, and have conversations with consumers and their carers to achieve positive outcomes.
For the purpose of this training the preferred terminology is ‘adviser’ however other names that may be used in the sector could be ‘case manager’ or ‘coordinator.’
There are numerous skills that advisers need to facilitate positive consumer outcomes. Each adviser will develop their own personal style. Some of these are learned informally through life whilst others are learned theoretically and developed through formal training.
There is an assumption that advisers completing this training will be familiar with and understand essential adviser skills.
Some of these include:
- interviewing
- communication
- critical thinking
- negotiation and collaboration
- advocacy and mediation
- awareness of diversity.
These learning modules aim to provide advisers with the skills and tools to work in a CDC model to support people to remain living at home for as long as possible. It also equips them with the knowledge to enable consumers to have choice and flexibility in the way that care and support is provided at home. Quotes, ideas and tools will be embedded throughout the modules as will the underpinning values and principles of CDC.
The content of these learning modules is centred on giving advisers the tools to create partnerships and build relationships with consumers. The training includes practical strategies to have empowering conversations with consumers from their first point of contact through to monitoring, review and potential exit.
The resource is broken into five learning modules that can be used as a full training session or stand alone units.
Instructions on how to download Learning Modules:
Each module consists of a PowerPoint presentation with accompanying video files and a participants Handbook. Please make sure the video files reside in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation, for the presentation to work. Each link below will take you to it’s own resource page to download that particular file.
- Using the ‘Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, Module 4, Module 5′ links below, please go in and download all five individual Module Participant Workbooks, additional Values Activity (only applicable to Module 2) and My Story Booklet (only applicable to Module 3). Each link will take you to that Module’s resource page to download each workbook, activity and booklet individually.
- Then download the PowerPoint Presentation Zip Files and Video Zip Files using the ‘PowerPoint Presentations and Video Files’ link below. Make sure the video files reside in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation for it to work.
- Additional documents are available for download for Facilitators. These can be found in the ‘Facilitator Guides’ link below and include the Facilitators Guide, Further Reading Resources and Workshop Evaluation Form.
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Module 1
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Module 2
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Module 3
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Module 4
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Module 5
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: PowerPoint Presentations and Video Files
DOWNLOAD our: Learning Modules: Facilitators Guides