Maria Ballantyne, Group Manager, Living Well South talks about the a strength based approach can empower people to live their best lives…
As we all know, the past year has seen us change the way in which we live to such an extent that we are all feeling a little nervous of the ‘what next?’. It is good to acknowledge that we have been through a difficult time, but we probably have been able to do more than we thought we could? Maybe? Yes? No?
There comes a time in some people’s lives when we feel that we need support and it may be that we ask family, friends and neighbours before we would think about contacting Adult Social Care Services. I wonder, why we do contact our friends and family first, is it because they offer to support in a small way? Support in a big way? Reassure us that everything will be okay and will support us until we feel better? Its certainly food for thought.
In the new world we live in it is important that we really think about how we, as providers of health and care services, can continue to offer support in such a way that doesn’t overwhelm and undermine your confidence but, how can we do that?
In Adult Social Care Services we are working to adopt a Strengths based approach. What that means is we are going to do is to talk to you about what you can do, rather than what you can’t. We are going to ask you what support you need turn it around? We know that everyone has strengths and we will concentrate on those to make sure that your confidence and self-worth are the focus for what is important to you. We are going to have a conversation with you so that you can tell us what it is that you want to achieve, and we will offer you the support to achieve this.
There are a number of ways in which this can be done – it may be via a Carers hub, a service in the Community such as a knitting service or, it may be a Promoting Independence Worker who can look at community visits to build your confidence going to the corner shop.
Whatever it is that you need to maintain or improve your independence our strength-based approach will allow us to do this, we are working with our colleagues to maintain your independence rather than create a dependence. Perhaps most importantly of all, we want to make sure that you can ‘live your best life’ whatever that may be! Everyone is different, everyone is unique.