On an extremely windy and rainy day in October, members of the Huron County CCC met in Seaforth to begin their first meeting in which the group would come together to begin analysis of data from the Discover phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process.
From the Culture Change Living Toolkit:
Discovery is the second phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process where the team works to discover what gives life to an organization or community when it is at its best. It involves gathering stories and opinions from as many people within the organization or community as possible to learn about the factors that contribute to its success. Discovery is most effective when all voices within the organization or community are heard
The rain and wind kept many CCC members from attending as power outages across the region required team members to attend to clients reliant on machinery and tools requiring electricity. The Huron County CCC is made up of members from various community groups and is not, as are other CCC's linked to a single Long Term Care (LTC) facility. Most community groups are oriented towards providing care for individuals living with dementia in their home.
The group was enthusiastic about beginning to analyze data related to questions about quality of life from people living with dementia. In their next meetings, the CCC will analyze data from other stakeholders, like staff, family members and others to get a well-rounded picture of experiences of client care. This sort of analysis is extremely rich because it is done by people who also have first-hand experience in working with individuals who are living with dementia. Their experiences and knowledge add an additional layer to the interpretation of the data. These team members are also actively involved in the data collection process and, true to the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework, are instrumental in deciding what sort of data will be collected, from whom. The group also collaborates to decide what data collection methods might best suit their needs.
CCC members at Huron County have been enthusiastic about being involved in data collection as well as analysis. Looking at narratives from persons living with dementia, CCC members used the Appreciative Inquiry process to ask what they learn from the data. After familiarizing themselves with the raw data, CCC members answered the following questions which are rooted inthe Appreciative Inquiry Methodology.
- What does this information tell us about what an ideal care experience would look like for residents/clients (persons living with dementia)?
- What does this information tell us about what is working well? What do people feel most proud of?
- What is going on when things are working well? (how do people feel, what are they doing, how are they treated?)
- After reading this information, what recommendations would you make? What should happen more? What might need to change?
These questions are designed to help Discover 'the best of what is' in terms of current care practices among members of the Huron County CCC. By learning what works best in the Discover phase, the CCC team will be able, in subsequent phases of the project, to expand on those aspects of care that work well to other areas.
Analysis is still in early stages, but what is clear from the onset is that individuals living with dementia are happiest and feel most comfortable when there are few barriers to accessing care and support from community groups and when there is opportunity for one on one social contact.