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Chapter 14
Tools to help you plan and
support self care
Tool 2
Devising your PCT/practice strategy and action plan to establish a new culture of promoting and supporting self care
Creating a strategy and statement of intent
The development of any strategy requires commitment and action from the organisation’s leadership, to give it authority. You want to develop an environment where self care by patients is consistently valued and encouraged by all the workforce. A good strategy will ensure that an integrated self care support resource is developed and patients are provided with a wide range of self care support options to choose from.
This tool will offer a framework for senior managers and key stakeholders to identify which of the success criteria they already have or are working towards. Do it at a standard planning meeting or with a dedicated working group focused on the promotion and support of self care.
Part 1: define your initial aims and people’s ideas about their contributions
Why you should do this
This activity focuses on what people hope to achieve, and parts they need to play.
When to use this
Useful at the beginning of a session to construct an action plan to introduce the work that needs to be covered.
What to do
Give everyone a sheet of flip chart paper. Ask them to draw a line across the middle about half-way down. Head the top section ‘Aims’, the lower half ‘Contributions’. Ask them to list their own aims for the session and what they will contribute to the session to achieve them. Fix the sheets to the wall. Encourage everyone to read other people’s sheets.
Alternatively, get each person to do a similar task before they come to the planning meeting. Then use their completed paperwork to kickstart discussions.
| Criteria – you have: | Where are we now? | Your action | |
| 1 | a strategy and statement of intent specifically constructed with promotion of self care and development of an integrated self care support resource at the centre | ||
| 2 | specific standards relating to funding, resources, protected time, training etc and other minimum requirements – applied to everyone involved in promoting and supporting self care | ||
| 3 | defined the affordable vision | ||
| 4 | representatives of the workforce involved in the development of policies and implementation plans | ||
| 5 | described the training plan to match the strategy and affordable vision | ||
| 6 | communicated the strategy, statement of intent and implementation plan throughout the PCT/practice | ||
| 7 | evaluation methods developed to measure effectiveness, outcomes and contribution to organisational objectives |
How it works (insight)
People will ‘own’ what they’ve written, and become clearer about why they are attending the meeting. They define their role and can see that they need to be actively involved, not just passive observers.
Whom to engage
This is a useful start for any planning group.
How much time you should allow
Thirty minutes if the exercise is used as a simple checklist and up to three hours if used as part of a developmental event.
What a facilitator should do
Keep time, wander around encouraging anyone who is not getting started.
What to do next
The two exercises which follow, continue and refine this activity.
What makes it work better
People with a clear idea what they want from attending, and what they can do to achieve their aims – so provide some pre-reading matter.
What can go wrong
- Participants who have been sent rather than wanting to attend for themselves, and
make a reluctant input to the action plan.
- Participants who have no clear idea what they want or what they can contribute to promoting and supporting self care.
Part 2: refining the aims into objectives; using the contributions
Why you should do this
It shows that you are responding to the stated aims and examining how (and if) they could be met by using the contributions of the team members.
What to do
Review the sheets of the previous exercise (Part 1) and identify some general categories. Write these as headings on a flip chart or PowerPoint slide.
Ask each person to stand by their sheet and in turn to read out one aim. Ask the group to provide an objective that would meet the aim, and into which category it would fit, then ask what contributions from team members would help it to be realised. Write the objectives in one colour, the contributions in another. Add in any activities already planned that meet the objectives. You will need a ‘miscellaneous’ category for those that do not fit neatly into any one category.
Leave the aims and objectives displayed for you and the participants to check out whether they are being met (be prepared to modify what you do accordingly!).
How it works (insight)
People can judge whether their aims are reasonable or over-ambitious and unlikely to be met. They can recognise where their own contributions can assist with setting and meeting objectives, and where they fit in with the activities planned.
Whom to engage
The aims and contributions need to have been collected first.
How much time you should allow
Discussion usually takes about 40–60 minutes.
What a facilitator should do
Encourage discussion of aims and contributions. Allow new contributions to be offered, and modify the aims if people realise they are unrealistic. Try to categorise the aims and objectives as clearly as possible.
What to do next
You might use the following exercise (Part 3).
What makes it work better
- People who are prepared to be flexible about what they have written down and are
prepared to be responsible for their own learning.
- Team members who have similar aims.
What can go wrong
- People who cannot (or will not) recognise that their aims are unrealistic, or who
cannot see that they could make any contribution towards meeting them.
- Widely different aims among the participants.
Part 3: setting priorities
Why you should do this
Team members must recognise that not all their aspirations are possible with competing pressures, so they need to set priorities.
When to use this
You might use this for any suggested activity where there are a large number of objectives, not all of which can be met within the resources available or timetable suggested.
What to do
List objectives on the flip chart and give a letter of the alphabet (A, B, C, etc) to the objectives obtained. Ask each participant to rate each objective from 1–20 and write the rating by the letter without conferring. Explain that it is alright to allocate the total of ‘20’ marks to one item, and to rate another as ‘zero’, or to split the marks more equally. Ask each group member to give you their ratings and write them alongside the objectives. Add up the total rating for each objective.
If there are objectives with widely different ratings, ask the person who gave it a high rating to explain why, and the person who gave it a low rating to reply. Allow a general discussion for each objective with different ratings.
How it works (insight)
It can be surprising for some people to discover that items they rated as important were not so to others. It emphasises the need to explore other people’s views of what is important and take their views into account when setting out a programme of work.
Whom to engage
Preferably all those who have contributed so far; or a smaller working group otherwise, with or without external colleagues.
How much time you should allow
This depends on the degree of disagreement. If ratings are similar, it will take about half an hour, but twice that if items are hotly argued over.
What a facilitator should do
Keep the peace – do not allowfeelings to become too heated in defence of someone’s pet idea. Move the discussion on fairly briskly to avoid spending all the time discussing just a few of the points.
What to do next
Use the priority ratings to hand over specific objectives to small development groups – allocate the items they rated highly to those most interested. Modify the content of the activities to make them more relevant to the highly rated objectives. Offer to set up further groups to meet objectives that cannot be covered in the time available.
What makes it work better
Differences in the participants’ views – this is more likely if they come from different health or management disciplines.
What can go wrong
- Everyone agrees on the priorities and there is little or no discussion.
- A few people become upset that their objectives are not rated highly by others.