Lesson 15: Change Theory Attention Disability affects hundreds of millions of families in developing countries. Currently around 10 percent of the total world’s population, or roughly 650 million people live with a disability. Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:
Teaching How people change The key factor in understanding vocational aspects of disability, and all rehabilitation work for that matter, is learning to facilitate change and encouraging motivation in the client by assisting them in moving towards job readiness with a goal of employment in an integrated competitive environment. Change occurs when people learn new information that moves them to action. Sometimes they learn new information the hard way like getting arrested, losing a friend or loved one because of poor choices. These instances cause trauma and in most cases they will need more than you can provide as a community rehabilitation professional. This is a time when referral is important. However, many of the individuals you work with are simply frozen in time because of ambiguity. They have no idea what to do or how to do it. Your job then is to facility their learning. Inaction breeds complacency and we can’t do it for them. We must encourage, teach, facilitate and hurl belief at them until they have enough information to create hope and belief in their own future to take action. There is an old adage that says; “sometime we are our own worst enemies”. This can be particularly true with consumers diagnosed with mental illness who have come to believe they cannot work. Changing this self belief using the components of recovery combined with vocational profile development and change theory is the overall focus of the work done in community rehabilitation setting.
Sometimes there is a “right” or “correct” answer that is NOT debatable or negotiable. Mathematical processes are not subject to our opinion or rationale. One plus One is Two (1+1=2). Period. This is not debatable unless you change the rules of math. Some laws are administered like that. If you drink and drive (and get caught) you will lose your license. This is not debatable. Other evidence based responses that are based on reality are not negotiable. This is a change that many of the clients may be very resistant to accept. As long as a response is debatable, no real decision has been made. We will go with the flow. This creates ambiguity and promotes a lack of confidence in our daily lives and the lives of the clients we work with. Sometimes rhetoric suffices in our work and other times finite correct answers are required and expected. Discerning which professional response has some fudge room and which must be done correctly is a critical skill to learn in the rehab business. Sometimes you do not get second chances. Helping our clients with this process, discerning what is negotiable and what has clear non negotiable consequences is part of our job as community rehabilitation professionals. What are people’s perspectives toward their PROBLEM, (identified by someone else) and CHANGE? When you develop an accurate vocational profile that the consumer clearly understands, hope is introduced and clarity of a positive future begins to formulate in the consumers mind. Change begins when individuals recognize that there is significant DISCREPANCY, causing ambivalence between their intrinsic values and important life goals and their current circumstances and/or actions, impeding the pursuit of these values or achievement of their goals. WILLING: Address Discrepancy: difference between what one wants and what one has. -IS THE ISSUE PERCEIVED BY THE PERSON AS AN IMPORTANT ENOUGH PROBLEM TO CHANGE? - How important? ABLE: Change occurs when: 1) people recognize the importance and feasibility of change (ARE MOTIVATED). MOTIVATOINAL INTERVIEWING
Click HERE to visit www.motivationalinterviewing.org Six Brief Steps: Listening and Engaging: Joining Up Assessment Lesson 15 Discussion Discuss personal changes that you have had to make and analyze them using the change model and information in the lesson. Lesson 15 Assignment Read the following case scenario and complete the Change Plan worksheet as if you and she were meeting 1:1. As you complete the assignment, keep in mind the information you have learned in this lesson about the change model. Click HERE to download the Change Plan Worksheet in PDF Sally, age 19, comes to the university counseling center because of various fears that have interfering in her life. She is single, American of Chinese descent, visually impaired (legally blind), and in her first semester of college. She reports that she is afraid of everything, including coming to see you. A friend pressured her to seek counseling. She avoids new situations because of a fear of how she’ll react. She’s afraid to go to her classes because she doesn’t know how to interact well with strangers. She is afraid of talking out loud in class, and panics at the thought because she is convinced she’ll sound dumb. She gets panicky at the thing out to parties or most any group social situation. Mainly, she’s afraid of not knowing what’s appropriate or expected of her, and how she is viewed by others. She has come to you for help and support.
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