Real lives real jobs report

18‐20 July 2011 ‘Real Lives, Real Jobs’ Consumer Workforce Research Presentation Wanda Bennetts 20.7.11 Context • R...

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18‐20 July 2011

‘Real Lives, Real Jobs’ Consumer Workforce Research Presentation

Wanda Bennetts 20.7.11

Context • Relatively new workforce • Evolving • Time to take stock • Mental Health Consumer Workforce (not people in workforce more generally who happen to be consumers)

The literature • Brief background, overview of CP • Commitment to CP in policy & value of CP • Acknowledgement that the MH sector has not kept pace with the expansion, challenges and difficulties • Reality vs. rhetoric - not translating into practice • No increased funding • Services not necessarily sharing goals or values • Little work to date on specific issues for the CWF “The lack of attention given to the service user workforce developed over the past decade has resulted in a small, underdeveloped and neglected arm of the MH workforce (new Zealand Health Commission, 2005)

Main themes in the literature:

• • • • •

Infrastructure and Resources Education, Training and Research Attitudes Personal Safety Fostering Participation & Leadership

Findings • Five major themes – The Essence of Consumer Work – The Dollars – Pathways – Education, Training, Supervision & Mentoring – The Workplace – Leadership

The Essence of Consumer Work • • • • •

The role is ‘unique and special” Drivers for doing the work (+’ve & -’ve) Strong commitment to the work Diversity of work Growth areas – e.g. research, education & training, PDRSS • The importance of the casual CWF e.g. CAG’s

The Dollars • Not a directly asked question, but emerged as a very substantial theme • Not the motivating factor, but symbolic of valuing the work • Felt no ‘real’ increase in funding despite considerable evolution & expansion of work • No pay levels – reflecting career paths, qualifications, experience • Generally no parity – even with similar roles

The Dollars cont… • Powerful message that this is about ‘Real Lives, Real Jobs’ • No full time jobs - juggling more than one part time job • Impact on maintaining a stable workforce – Often treated as a stepping stone to other work – High turnover – Doing work in own time

• No career paths • No graded pay levels – e.g. related to experience and specialisation • Professional bodies to fight for conditions

The Dollars cont… • Budgets – Don’t have control or input into own budgets – Rarely know what the allocated funding is or if the organisation has allocated funding – No flexibility to respond to valuable opportunities

Pathways: Education, Training, Supervision & Mentoring • Training – Possibly most contentious issue – All agreed training important & wanted orientation & ongoing PD opportunities – Noted importance of training in capacity building – No consensus on: • Content of training • Academic qualifications’ or based around ‘lived experience’ • Whether or not training may make consumer work ‘exclusionary’

Training Cont… • Other factors to consider: – How training should be developed – Who should develop and deliver training (most thought it should be developed and delivered by a consumer who has been or is currently working in the role) – Cost (free training) – Orientation for new MH workers: “It’s an organisational issue. They need to understand what we do”.

Supervision, Mentoring • Important and often not available to CWF or not taken up by them • Supervisors and mentors should be chosen by the consumer • Important for – – – –

Reflecting Problem solving Avoiding isolation As a sort of ‘peer support’

• Implications when non-consumer staff who provide supervision do not understand consumer work

The Workplace • Impact of environment on work • Useful: – Flexibility e.g. flexible work hours, work from home – Sharing good ideas with other consumer workers – Need opportunities for reflective practice – Plans for when unwell e.g. AD’s – Career paths – “I’d love one thanks”. • Inadequacies of basic resources – E.g. lack of well developed JD’s, mobile phones, lap tops… • Attitudes – Being taken seriously by organisation, tokenism, power dynamics, safety in numbers, disclosure, isolation (impact on personal safety) • Need for accountability & transparency

Leadership • Critical factor in promoting status and value of consumer work • Defining leadership – means different things to different people • Different sources of leadership – DoH, – ‘good people’ working in organisations, – consumer leadership • Fostering leadership from within CWF – Identifying leaders – Career paths – Networking – Resourcing leadership positions, opening up opportunities

Possible Consumer Workforce Development Priorities • • • • • •

Consumer Leadership Diversification of the consumer workforce Career Paths Education & training Supervision Mentoring

Thank you

Wanda Bennetts [email protected] 8405 8903