Staying Put

Please Note: All the names and places mentioned in Lucy's blog have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

It wasn’t so much that rain stopped play, however I think it probably did for others given record rain fall levels this spring and summer. No, for me it was trying to move house that stopped play. And to cap it all, I haven’t even moved house. I only got to the trying to move house stage. The whole thing was a bit of a nightmare. The members in my chain set to, to break a record or two ourselves relating to the fastest exchange in history. I rang, I chased, I rang back, I emailed, I did follow up emails, I took a call from the estate agent in the middle of my appraisal, thank you Michelle, (my manager). I had to cancel a staff meeting that I was due to attend in one of our services to take time to attend a summit of all house movers in our chain.

I see implementing intensive interaction very much as a designed, managed intentional process. Think of where you want to be, (communication not medication), how are you going to get there (train someone, mentor them, then involve them in training and mentoring others, full circle), then do it. Now none of this just happens, it has to be planned, considered, documented, followed through. This takes concentration and organisation. This in turn takes energy, something that was in rather short supply during my house move debacle.

I arrived for an in house mentoring appointment with just my camera, an hour and a half late. The carefully planned paper work side and process completely forgotten in the mass of house related calls that morning. Oh dear I thought, I’ll make it up to this person next time, we’ll spend more time together then.

From these chaotic beginnings however, a good start awaited me, “This is a much better time for me, earlier it was really busy” said the member of staff. We sat down, the member of staff, me and the resident we were being with, no plan, another resident joined us, it was sunny, all the jobs in the house were done, I had to faff around to get the camera sorted, a bit of chat, a settling down time, some gentle coaching (how do you gently tell someone to stop talking!!), and one of the most moving sessions I have witnessed unfolded in front of me.

It was an example of reaching the tipping point. The point at which if I could get every member of staff to, I’d be made redundant. This is where the staff member sees the person, not the disability or a person who needs care, they just see another person in front of them. Equal, level, person to person and the relationship is changed - forever. Using intensive interaction with the person becomes as instinctive as breathing. It’s what I aspire to every day with each member of staff. I suspected with growing interest that I was witnessing this, but needed feedback from the person involved. I got it in bucket loads. “It was as if everyone else in the room disappeared, I couldn’t see you, the camera, only Philip”,

Yes, this had the makings of a tipping point, but would it hold? Gina mentioned a staff meeting was happening that afternoon. Great - some homework - feedback something about this session at the staff meeting. I briefed the manager not to prompt, but to feedback to me if Gina said anything and waited nervously for a response. Had we got there, or was it too brief and fleeting to really impact?

Reader, we got there! The description to the staff team, was that it was like being at a dinner party and Philip was the perfect person to be sitting next to. Other staff members interested? intrigued? Big yes.

No preparation, no paperwork, no plan, 1 ½ hours late and this happens.

I must try and “not” move house more often (JOKE).