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Mentoring a Spirit of Gentleness for Individuals with Disabilities |
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· Quality of Life · Links |
Conceptual Overview of the Quality of Life ModelIn order to have a conceptual overview of the Quality of Life (QoL) Model we must identify two areas for facilitating its future direction. Remember that as we facilitate our services these areas relate to improving the quality of life for the Individuals. One side of the QoL model is quantitative because it can be measured objectively and subjectively, while the other side of the model is qualitative because of the need to describe one’s quality of life (Table 1). It is important to identify that both methods are necessary to facilitate the Quality of Life Model’s validity and reliability to provide for positive future direction in enhancing the lives of individuals we serve.
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Table1: QoL Model: Quantitative and Qualitative |
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| QoL – Quantitative | QoL – Qualitative |
Quantitative Methods and Data
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Qualitative Methods and Data
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The application of this model from the above areas assist in the
collection of information within four areas; research, quality
enhancement, quality assurance and policy development. The research component helps to identify the questions to ask, identify problems, search for solutions and finally, creates a history of information to share with others for future inquires.
Service Delivery
The service delivery of the QoL model has four areas that facilitate
the overall enhancement of the quality of life for the Individuals we
serve. The first area of the delivery services is to enhance the
quality of life for the Individual receiving services, the second area,
addresses the service delivery and improving the interactions of the
direct service worker, the third area, identifies the celebration of this
companionship, finally the fourth area identifies with us the outcomes of
the services one has received. The initial delivery of services begins with the identification
of assessing one’s quality of life values, sense of companionship and
community, quality of life elements and the quality of life assets.
These four assessments provide the foundation for the quality of life
plan. This plan gives the direction for us to improve the quality of
life for the Individuals we serve. This direction provides us each
day with the actions, formal and informal and the unconditional valuing
that facilitates the four primary goals of being a caregiver. First,
teaching the person to feel safe with us, second, teaching the person to
feel engaged with us, third, teaching the person to feel unconditionally
valued by us, and finally, teaching the person to return unconditional
valuing to us. It is these four goals that will nurture one’s
sense of companionship and community. As we teach these four goals it is important to document one’s
experience. These experiences are documented on two forms; the first
being the daily quality of life sheet and the second form is the teaching
form. The daily quality of life sheet, the informal form,
provides us a place to write about our daily meaningful activities and the
engagement experiences that we have with the individual we are working
with as we build companionship and community. The teaching form, the
formal action of one’s quality of life plan, provides us with the
methodology to enhance one’s quality of life with the ability to
reciprocate one’s valuing of oneself and others as we build
companionship and community. This form will be reviewed monthly to
enhance and make changes to our own interactions as we build companionship
and community. In review of one’s quality of life plan we will assess quarterly and
annually to facilitate the direction and to identify the progress one has
experienced in improving their own quality of life. For each
quarterly review we assess and identify one’s quality of life values,
sense of companionship and community, quality of life elements and the
quality of life assets to give direction to progress and make
recommendations to enhance one’s overall quality of life. The
annual review provides us with the same four areas of assessing, but we
identify one’s previous present quality of life as part of the past and
identify new areas of one’s present quality of life with new formal and
informal actions. The second part of this QoL process is to facilitate improving the
quality of interactions of the direct service worker that facilitates this
spirit of gentleness. The caregiver along with their mentor will
help to develop a plan that is called “Facilitating a Spirit of
Gentleness.” This plan helps assess caregiver’s tools to build
companionship and community with the person who receives our
services. Being a part of facilitating one’s quality of life
depends upon identifying and following an individual’s quality of life
plan. This depends upon the caregivers ability to understand and to
identify their own tools and interactions necessary to improve the quality
of life for the Individual we serve. In review of the caregivers plan, we will assess monthly, quarterly and
annually to identify with each caregiver their roles and responsibilities
to enhance one’s quality of life and to facilitate the mission and
values within the agency. The third part of the QoL model identifies the celebration of one’s
life as we build companionship and community. This celebration is
what we call a “community-centered celebration.” It is through
this celebration that we are brought together in community to celebrate
with each other the experiences and dreams and vision to enhance the
person’s quality of life. The final part of the QoL model identifies the outcome of services one
has experienced as we build companionship and community to enhance one’s
quality of life. This outcome identifies four key areas that
identify one’s success to reclaim the power of the heart
unconditionally. The first chamber of reclaiming the power of the
heart is the person’s own perception of their life and services they
receive. This perception also identifies their own ability to
express their dreams and longings to improve their quality of life.
The second chamber helps to identify their interactions with us as they
express their physical, verbal and gestural expressions that identify with
us in reciprocating valuing our teaching. The third chamber helps us
to recognize our interactions of teaching the feelings of companionship as
we build a sense of community. The fourth chamber helps us to
identify the outcomes of our teaching as we assess one’s quality of life
plan. Organizational Change
Organizational change begins with the understanding that we all need to
embrace changes. Embracing change needs to focus on the two areas
that will enhance our purpose and direction of this model. The first
area of change embraces total quality management that facilitates the
development of the competent caregiver and implements quality enhancement
techniques and tools that are needed. This area is identified by one’s
initial letter of ethics of training, personal portfolio of competencies
folder, and monthly training that sets the standard of competencies that
will enhance one’s tools and techniques that will be used to facilitate
enhancing the quality of life for the Individuals we serve. The second
area of change develops the support that is needed for planning and for
making decisions that will facilitate the direction of supporting this
model within the organization. The support is facilitated by the
dialogue and planning each team member brings to the table to embrace the
quality of services and to identify the support that is needed to
facilitate these services. Facilitating support is being able to identify the organizational chart
and the policies and procedures that provide direction for its
implementation within the organization to enhance the organization’s
overall mission and values. Public Policy
Public policies are an important
component as we facilitate enhancing the overall quality of life for
individuals with developmental disabilities. It is our
responsibility within the organization to identify with others within the
community the importance of one’s life and the right one is expected to
receive without regard for the differences one has within our society and
culture. There are six areas that facilitate the direction which provides
the information necessary to enhance the lives of individuals with
developmental disabilities within the community.
Although the connection of one’s family and support team is focused on enhancing the overall quality of life, we must identify and be actively involved with other members in the community. We also need to understand the public’s perception and attitude which is reflective of their decision and knowledge of individuals with developmental disabilities and balance this perception with the need for people with developmental disabilities to be actively involved in the community with the right services and funding. |
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