Person-centred approach to health planning

It was great to meet with Nikki Steiner, Principal Speech and Language Therapist with Central London Community Health Care Trust (CLCH), to evaluate the work that was commissioned by CLCH. The project started in the spring of 2016 and aimed to support a person-centred and inclusive approach to health planning and intervention using the Talking Mats framework.

Those words ‘person-centred’ and ‘inclusive’ are easy to say but much harder to implement. Our approach was threefold:

1. We provided 100 staff with the Talking Mats resources to use in their practice (both the original and digital versions).
2.  We ran 3 Enhanced Talking Mats training courses for those staff which involved two days training. The first day introduced the framework and built staff confidence in using the resource. The second day supported staff to reflect on their use of the Talking Mats in their work setting, and allowed them to think creatively about further application and development.
3. To sustain the capacity of CLCH to continue with the project we trained three accredited trainers. The plan is they will continue to build staff skills and training on an on-going basis and provide local leadership and expertise.

The evaluation framework that we are using looks at impact of this investment using the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation. This allowed us to evaluate:

1. Participants’ reaction to the training,
2. Participants’ learning – did they increase their knowledge skills and learning?
3. Transfer and application – did they apply their learning to the workplace?
4. Result – this was based on the impact that using the Talking Mats skills and resources had on the lives of people with communication disability

We had different measurements for each part of the model and these ranged from course feedback, a quiz, personal reflection and stories from people with communication difficulties. It is these that we are in the process of analysing so watch this space for the final report. Nikky said ‘This is such an exciting project that impacts on all the different client groups that we support’.

If you would like to discuss implementing Talking Mats at an organisational level then have a look at this link – Organisational Training