вторник, 25 август 2009 г.

Poster presentation to the 7th European Congress MHID

PROCESS MODEL OF QUALIFYING SOCIAL WORKERS TAKING CARE FOR ADULT MEN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES IN BULGARIA – A TEAM TRAINING A TEAM.

Plamen Radev, Ognyan Koychev, Zlatomira Kostova, Albena Aleksandrova, Galin Tsokov – University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Introduction

The poster presents the core of a joint Flemish-Bulgarian Project to improve the quality of life and the wellbeing of 84 adult men with severe intellectual disabilities living in a residential care in a small town in Bulgaria. The mission is to make better social care by supplying qualification training to the nonqualified social workers. The project is inspired and sponsored by the Medical Pedagogical Centre “St. Franciscus” and the Foundation “Help the Children”, Belgium and is executed by The Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The Qualification Training is developed as a process model and its contents are based on the Concept Quality of Life of People with Intellectual Disabilities.
The Qualification Training is aimed to:
 to present and to organize a system of knowledge, necessary to provide for a better quality of life of intellectually disabled people;
 to improve the existing practical skills and to develop new professional skills of the nonqualified personnel;
 to stimulate the professional efforts, to reward the commitment to the social care and to raise the interest to the wellbeing of the intellectually disabled men, living in the residential care.

Methodology

The concept of the process model is defined as a specific substantiated pattern of selected topics in qualifying particular target group of social workers, without basic professional education, supporting the well-being of adult intellectually disabled men. In its completed form the model is giving an answer to the following questions: why, what, where, when, who, how.

Why is the model necessary? Because of the need for adequate practices to improve and to develop the life quality and the well-being of the adult intellectually disabled men living in residential care. This is considered as a consequence of the improvement of the social work activities, of the raising of the effectiveness and of the creating of a humane professional culture.
The process model is scientifically demarcated by specific criteria for the theoretical and the practical knowledge. These are:
• the model is not an universal one;
• the narrative is reduced to a minimum;
• the attitude is critical to the reality of the residential care;
• the model is opened to constructive changes;
• the concept is presented to an authoritative scientific forum;
The process model is pragmatically demarcated by the self-assessment of the needs and the problems of the residential care personnel.

What is the model like? It is a complex (an entity) of interrelated components – basic principles, aims of the qualification, process of the qualification, means of the training, contents of the training, participants (subjects) of the qualification and assessment procedures.

Where is the model realised? The qualification training is carried out with the nonqualified personnel of social workers in the Residential Centre with Secured Houses for Adult Men with Severe Intellectual Disabilities and The Individual Secured House in Batak – small town in the region of Pazardjik, Bulgaria. The Centre is financed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Individual house is funded by the MPC “Sint Franciscus”, Belgium and the Municipality of Batak.


When is the model realised? The training process takes a total of 18 months for all the subjects who are divided into three groups or each group is qualified for 6 months.










Who is accomplishing the model? The process model for the qualification training is developed and fulfilled by a team of five faculty members working in the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology at the Faculty of Pedagogy, The University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

How is the model realised? The realisation is based on a developed curriculum or a system of modules, containing specific topics and training methods.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIC COMPONENTS AND CONCEPTS OF THE PROCESS MODEL FOR QUALIFICATION.

The Qualification in this case is seen as a perpetuating a purposeful process for changing, enriching and broadening the cognitive schemata and the professional conduct of the team of the social workers in the residential care for the adult men with severe intellectual disabilities.
The Principles of the model are here understood as harmonized reasons and recognitions:
1. for a particular specializing and integrated practice;
2. for a sequence of events that are caused by the process model.

The current process model is built on the following principles:
 contextuality, meaning an interrelation between the knowledge given and the ways of mastering them in the concrete situation of Batak;
 multilateral influence, having in mind the variety of the stimulation presented;
 imparting significance of the necessary knowledge;
 interactive training;
 movement from declarative to procedural knowledge;
 synergetic action, meaning collaborative and focused activities of the training team;
 threaded and shared integration, considered as a well-founded movement from one module to another and creating a vision of an entity of the curriculum:








Goals       
      
module1 module2 module3 module4 module5 module6 module7
        Results.
      
mod. 8 mod. 9 mod. 10 mod. 11 mod. 12 mod. 13 mod. 14.



The goals of the process model for qualification are defined as: (1) a humanistic integrative element of the social workers’ practice; (2) a starting point and a determinant of the personnel’s individual and group professional conduct. The goals of the qualification process model are divided to general, specific and concrete. The general goals have the status of setting the specific and the concrete ones. The specific goals are given on the top of each module. The concrete goals are the tasks of each session of the module. The training team defines the three types of goals in a clear and a simple way according to nature of the professional environment of the social workers.

The General goals of the process model are defined in the following taxonomy of the professional experience:
1. Cognition about the specific terminology, facts, conceptions, values, methods and procedures in the social care for intellectually disabled clients.
2. Understanding and identifying information and activities in accordance with the everyday work in the residential care.
3. Developing expedient skills to apply the new information, acquired in the training process.
4. Developing skills for making decisions in atypical situationa.
5. Creating a humane culture of communication and professional attitude to the intellectually disabled clients.












The Contents of the Qualification Training is organized in 14 modules. Each module is conceived as a specifically programmed and structured panel of integrated informative and operational contents, consisting of an unity of particular quantity and quality of knowledge, skills and competence necessary for an effective social care and support of the intellectually disabled men.

The thematic allocation of the training modules (the curriculum) is the following:
1. Issues of the social policy and legislation for disadvantaged and disabled people in Bulgaria.
2. Specific terminology in the social work with intellectually disabled people.
3. Individual profiles, evaluation of the clients (assessing the individual strengths and weaknesses) and personal action planning.
4. Individual approach to the intellectually disabled clients.
5. Planning and organizing the free time and the leisure of the intellectually disabled clients.
6. Specific methods for individual and group work to develop intellectually disabled clients’ social skills.
7. Methods and techniques for motivating the intellectually disabled clients.
8. Social integration and creating, stimulating social contact skills of the intellectually disabled clients.
9. Techniques of communication with the clients with a disability.
10. Methods and techniques to cope with and to control clients’ aggression.
11. Team work in the social care for disabled people. Team building and mastering the team working capacity of the personnel.
12. Building “client – team – social worker” system.
13. Talking with the intellectually disabled clients about sexuality, sexual hygiene and sexual problems.
14. Individual cases problem solving.










The Process Model of the Qualification Training Technology is defined hereby as a successive movement of particular interrelated events in the following contingency:
 external motivating and presenting the concrete goals of the didactic form (session)  thematic focussing  introducing to a learning situation of presenting declarative and procedural  discussing and interpreting the new information  creating a problem solving situation  applying the acquired skills and  interactive evaluation and supervision  appraisal and conclusions .
The technology is not rigid and the process is opened and dynamic.

The Methods used in the model are a form of interaction between the trainer and the trained social workers aiming to provoke the development of the qualification process. The methods here could be classified in several groups based on their purpose (intention):
- direct – presenting lectures, reviews and surveys, counselling;
- interactive – discussions, group training, problem-based training, brainstorming, supervision;
- imitative – simulations, role playing and sensitivity training;
- pragmatic – applied project activities, practical problem solving, case study.

The didactic forms applied to organize and to frame the qualification process are the short lecture, the seminar, the workshop, the dynamic training.

The evaluation in the process model for the qualification of the social workers is of the summarizing (final) type and the instrument used is a presentation of a practical case study. In the evaluation procedure the trainer is supervising the case and is facilitating an intervision of the group. In this way the evaluation result is consequence of the entire group process. The trainees are giving a feedback by a final assessment of the qualification training.

петък, 10 юли 2009 г.

Celebrating the successful finish of the qualification training


The professor is strict, but fair and compassionate.

Celebrating the successful finish of the qualification trainingT

Together in the classroom and in the dancing floor.

Celebrating the successful finish of the qualification training


Small souveniers but intensive feelings...

Celebrating the successful finish of the qualification training


Colleagues and friends

Final examination of the tarinees in Batak


The Chairman of tthe examination commettee is announcing the results

Final examination of the tarinees in Batak


The examination commettee is very exacting...

Final examination of the tarinees in Batak


The final countdown...

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria

The trainees' poster presentation.

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria

Working together is so stimulating...

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria


Interractive work in small groups

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria


Zlatomira is making a presentation.

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria


The professor in action!

Visit to the Institutional Secured Setting for ID Men in Batak


A nice one...

Visit to the Institutional Secured Setting for ID Men in Batak

Here they live...

Visit to the Institutional Secured Setting for ID Men in Batak

Some of our friends...

Visit to the Individual Secured House in Batak


The trainers and the clients - we are all the same men.

Visit to the Individual Secured House in Batak

Look what I can do modeling the plasticine!

Qualification Training in Batak, Bulgaria


We are opening the training process in Batak.

Study Visit to Belgium

Last shot with Jef in front of the MPC

Study Visit to Belgium


Visit to the protected house in Asse.

Study Visit to Belgium


Meeting professor Bea Maes in the University of Leuven.

Study Visit to Belgium

Learning about the Vlaskamp Theory in MPC "Sint Franciscus" in Roosdaal.

Study Visit to Belgium

The training team is discussing the Flamish experince in supporting the sexul matters of the intellectually disabled people in Gent.
UNIVERSITY OF PLOVDIV, DEPARTMENT OF PEDAGOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY
MPC "SINT FRANCISCUS", ROOSDAAL, BELGIUM

FOUNDATION "HELP THE CHILDREN" BELGIUM

QUALIFICATION TRAINING COURSE

TOPIC: “SOCIAL WORK AND CARE FOR MENTALLY RETARDED PEOPLE LIVING IN PROTECTED ENVIRONMENT”.
QUALIFICATION: “SOCIAL WORKER IN SECURE SETTINGS FOR INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED CLIENTS”.
TOTAL TRAINING HOURS: 150

QUALIFICATION TRAINING COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Ø to present and to organize a system of knowledge, necessary for effective social work with mentally retarded people;
Ø to improve the existing practical skills and to develop new professional skills of the nonqualified personnel;
Ø to stimulate the professional efforts, to reward the commitment to the social care and to raise the interest to the wellbeing of the mentally retarded men, living in a social institution.


CURRICULUM



1.Issues of the social policy and legislation for disadvantaged and disabled people in Bulgaria.
Ass. Prof. Galin Tzokov
2. Specific terminology in the social work with intellectually disabled people.
Ass. Prof. Galin Tzokov
3. Individual profiles, evaluation of the clients (assessing the individual strengths and weaknesses) and personal action planning.
Ass. Prof. Ognyan Koychev
4. Individual approach to the clients.
Ass. Prof. Albena Aleksandrova
5.Planning and organizing the free time and the leisure of the clients.
Ass. Prof. Albena Aleksandrova
6.Specific methods for individual and group work to develop clients’ social skills.
Prof. Plamen Radev
7.Methods and techniques for motivating the intellectually disabebled clients.
Ass. Prof. Albena Aleksandrova
8.Social integration and creating, stimulating social contact skills of the clients.
Ass. Prof. Zlatomira Kostova
9.Techniques of communication with the intellectually disabled clients.
Ass. Prof. Zlatomira Kostova
10.Methods and techniques to cope with and to control clients’ aggression.
Ass. Prof. Ognyan Koychev
11.Team work in the social care for disabled people. Team building and mastering the team working capacity of the personnel. Ass. Prof. Ognyan Koyche
12.Building “client – team – social worker” system.
Ass. Prof. Galin Tzokov
13.Speeking with the intellectually disabled clients about sexuality, sexual hygiene and sexual problems. Prof. Plamen Radev
14. Individual cases problem solving. Ass. Prof. Zlatomira Kostova

METHODS:

The methodology of the Qualification course is based on the concept of experiental learning (Kolb) and includes the following methods:
interaction;
discussion-group teaching;
skills training;
coaching;
facilitating;
intervision and counseling;
programmed instruction.

ORGANIZATION:

As the total number of the nonqualified personnel is 42 people we propose the trainees to be organized in three groups (14 people each). In such way every group will be trained for 10 weekends – 15 training hours in Saturday and Sunday, on site in Batak.

PROCESS MODEL OF QUALIFYING SOCIAL WORKERS TAKING CARE FOR ADULT MEN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES IN BULGARIA – A TEAM TRAINING A TEAM.

Authors:
Plamen Radev, Ognyan Koychev, Zlatomira Kostova, Albena Aleksandrova, Galin Tsokov – University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The concept of the process model is defined as a specific substantiated pattern of selected topics in qualifying particular target group of social workers supporting the well-being of adult intellectually disabled men. The target group consists of nonqualified personnel without basic level education in social care working in an Institution and an Individual Secured House in a small town of Batak. In its completed form the process model is aimed to answer the questions: why, what, where, when, who and haw is going to be qualified. The model is presented as a complex (integrity) of interrelated components – the underlying principles, the goals, the training procedure, the qualification technology, the contents and the subjects of the qualifying process together with the evaluation of the results.