people equal money

[dave]

just a sad musing that adults and kids in care sometimes just mean money and precious little else - there's absolutely nothing wrong in making money but whatever happened to basic human decency. there are so many services that love to say how person centred they are but I doubt they'd know person centred if it hit them straight in the face.

[Randall P. McMurphy]

A perfect example being a service taking admissions not based on the most suitable but those that have funding in place, meaning a bed is left 'empty' for the shortest period of time possible?

[anon_e-mouse]

Sounds like a rant Dave,:D
What specifically causes you the problem?
In a service environment the customer is the service providers link to an income stream.

The challenge is to provide a service that meets the needs of the customer and to excel as a service also to meet the aspirations and expectations of a great service - within budget.

I like the idea that the service should be customer focused but so often i see that this is only true up to a point. when the service provider does what it thinks is best and fails to take into account, believe or listen to the service users the service suffers. Most other organizations in the service sector measure customer satisfaction as a measure of the success of their service. (e.g. Royal Mail etc?) most services for children, young people and adults with CB think they know what the customer needs and only does what they think is best, often overruling the people that they provide for.

I think i heard one of the trainers once describe a hypothesis? that some challenging behavior might be an unsophisticated display of customer dissatisfaction. (Is there any truth in it?- anyone?) If so then CB would be a measure of customer dissatisfaction. It seems to be true that when the service user is enjoying life they challenge less.......

[delh]

I think challenging behaviour can be a means for a service user to express dissatisfction with his / her care, but it is often much more complex.
Yes, CB is often communicative in function, but for someone living in care, there could be so many dissatisfactions, frustrations etc to communicate! Some of these (eg food, levels of support and attention, activities etc) will be within the control of the service. However, many other factors (eg medication, the person's impairment or disability, family problems, a past history of abuse etc) will not.
Generally, upping anyone's quality of life will make them less difficult (that goes for us too!). However, I have seen abysmal services with low rates of CB, and great services that are struggling with incidents; its rarely that simple.
This sort of thing is covered in "causes of challenging behaviour" section of the Studio III course. When I teach this section I try to get people to keep an open mind about causes, and remember that complex individuals sometimes require complex approaches / solutions.

As to rampant commercialism, I agree with Dave, there's nothing wrong with making a profit, but it's the amount of profit that gets a little scary. Many people working in industry or retail would never dream of expecting some of the profit margins commanded by many large , private care companies these days.

[anon_e-mouse]

Some of these (eg food, levels of support and attention, activities etc) will be within the control of the service.

These things that are in the control of the service are simple provisions and spending could reduce profit if, to satisfy the needs of service users, spending increased. Obviously every penny not spent contributes to profit.

If services are making decisions that results in sustaining, maintaining or contributing to challenging behaviours because of profit considerations and not budget considerations then that would be hard to stomach.

[dave]

Yea anon e mous it is a rant. I like the idea that cb is an expression of customer dissatisfaction but would throw in how much do customers need to know about the service. I've also noticed that soem staff will do anything and everything they can do to protect the customer or children in this case. The result is often two very different forms of challenge with one single cause.

[anon_e-mouse]

how much do customers need to know about the service.
Customers dont want mission statements, munites of meetings or stuff like that. Customers dont want to know how its done why its difficult or why it cant be be done, they just want it done.

(I dont like it either dave.)