Training for Direct Support Workers
Training for Direct Support Workers who Assist Children and Adults with Disabilities Residing in Diverse Settings. A Three Tier Series: Valued Social Roles as a Means of Addressing Devaluation
Direct support workers play essential roles in providing support to children and adults with disabilities and expanding their community options. The ideas of bringing services to people in their homes, schools and communities and keeping people at home in their families, regardless of the severity of their disabilities or otherwise in need of support, have had a far-reaching impact on service philosophy and service provision. The CT Council on Developmental Disabilities is making training available to upgrade the skills and competencies of direct support workers with regard to the theory and principles behind the importance of enhancing the roles people with disabilities.
The Series
Understanding the Societal Context: What People with Impairments are Up Against
8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
This workshop invites participants to explore the wounding experiences with which many people with physical and intellectual impairments live as a result of being devalued by society. The goal of addressing such devaluation, by helping devalued people to attain valued social roles, will be described. Participants will learn about the universal aspects of social devaluation and the importance of personal identification with the people they serve.
Problem Solving From A Social Role Valorization Perspective
9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Based on the understanding of social devaluation and valued social
roles covered in the first presentation, this workshop lays out a helpful
framework for brainstorming and problem-solving based on a strategy of
positive compensation for vulnerability. This strategy involves stepping
into the shoes of a person served, identifying their particular vulnerabilities,
and devising steps aimed at prevention, reduction, and/or compensation
for those vulnerabilities. Participants are asked to come to this
presentation prepared to think about particular problems they have
faced in supporting someone.
The Tension Between Personal Autonomy and Community Living: An Examination Of The Rights Issue
8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
This workshop explores the tensions between supporting personal autonomy for disenfranchised people, and living with others in the community. The concepts of personal expression, choice and rights which are dominant in today's culture are explored from the perspective of social devaluation and Social Role Valorization.
NOTE: These three presentations include lecture, lots of stories and examples, audience questions and discussion, as well as questions for participants to reflect on.
Schedule of Presentations:
Participants will be offered three workshops in a sequence, with the first part offered on three different dates from which the participant will choose one. The second session will be offered twice from which the participant will choose one date, and the third session will be offered once. The dates are as follows:
Part One: Understanding the Societal Context: What People with
Impairments are Up Against
April 28, 2009 REGISTRATION CLOSED
May 28, 2009 FULL. REGISTRATION CLOSED
September 23, 2009
Part Two: Problem Solving from a Social Role Valorization Perspective
June 10, 2009 FULL REGISTRATION CLOSED
October 7, 2009
Part Three: The Tension Between Personal Autonomy and Community
Living: An Examination of the “Rights” Issue
November 4, 2009
Workshop Format:
This workshop was developed and will be presented by Jo Massarelli and
Marc Tumeinski of the Social Role Valorization Implementation Project in
Worcester, Massachusetts. Both have long involvement with families and
individuals who receive human service supports, as well as with individuals
and services that provide these supports.
The workshops consist of several lecture presentations, followed by ample
time for reflection, discussion, questions, and comments. A handout package will be provided.
Participants will be provided a certificate acknowledging their participation in the series. We regret that CEUs cannot be offered.
This Presentation is for:
Direct support workers and other representatives of support-providing services, including residential service staff and administrators, day service staff and administrators, visiting nurses, hospice workers, home health aides, respite workers, personal care assistants, family members and care-givers and individuals who currently use supports or might in the future.
About the Presenters
Jo Massarelli is Director of the SRV Implementation Project, a human service training and consultation concern based in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA). She divides her time at the project between teaching Social Role Valorization based workshops, and working with families, human service staff and people with impairments to bring about positive change, one person at a time. She has taught at workshops and lectured at conferences across the United States and Canada to a variety of human service workers serving a wide range of people devalued due to mental retardation, mental disorder, physical impairment, age (elders), and poverty. Ms. Massarelli has also evaluated dozens of human service programs for children, adults and elders, including residential, day and work programs, schools, hospice, prisons, and homeless shelters. Ms. Massarelli has been a teacher closely affiliated with Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger of the Training Institute in Syracuse, New York (USA) since 1983. She is a member and Senior Trainer of the International SRV Training, Development and Safeguarding Council, which meets twice a year to further develop SRV and keep it relevant to changing human service contexts. With Dr. Wolfensberger and a group of associates, she is heavily involved in teaching workshops on two crucial topics: how to provide service that is morally coherent in a dysfunctional human service world, and how to craft a coherent protective stance in the face of serious societal threats to the lives of socially devalued people. Ms. Massarelli has a particular interest in advocacy in medical settings. She teaches a variety of workshops on protecting vulnerable people in the based on these workshops. She is also a member of the Medical Safeguards Project, which is a group of nurses and doctors in Massachusetts who are committed to safeguarding the health and lives of mentally retarded people with significant medical needs.
http://medicalsafeguarding.org/ Ms. Massarelli serves as a consultant for Family Lives, a program for children with multiple impairments who require twenty-four hour nursing care. Family Lives is committed to providing the medical support necessary for the children to live at home, and Ms. Massarelli works to assist family and nurses alike to envision and realize more than the “patient” role for those served. http://www.familylivesnursing.com/ Ms. Massarelli serves as an advocate associate to the North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy project. She is involved in training Citizen Advocacy boards and advocates in how social devaluation affects human service recipients.
Marc Tumeinski is the Training Coordinator for The SRV Implementation Project in Worcester, MA (USA). He helps teach workshops throughout the US and Canada primarily, all based on the work of Dr. Wolfensberger of Syracuse University (NY, USA). As a service worker, he has supported children and adults with physical and/or intellectual impairments, as well as mental disorder, at home, school and work. As part of this, Marc has evaluated a variety of services in North America. He has also helped families and services think about what might be ideal for someone receiving services, and helped plan how to move towards the ideal. He has given workshops and spoken at conferences on issues of violence in services, as well as the use of restrictive practices such as restraint, in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. He has an article on the topic of restraint use published in the February 2005 issue of Mental Retardation. Marc consults to a group of family members and human service workers in Ontario (CANADA) who are working to bring about an end to the use of, and training in, restraints by human services in that province (http://citizensagainstrestraint.org/). Marc is the Editor of The SRV Journal, published twice a year, containing original articles, vignettes, book and film reviews, etc. on topics related to Social Role Valorization and PASSING. (http://www.srvip.org/). He is a member of the North American SRV Training, Development and Safeguarding Council. As such, he meets with the founder of SRV, Dr. Wolfensberger, and other SRV teachers twice a year. Jo Massarelli and her husband Marc Tumeinski are part of a neighborhood effort responding to the needs of homeless people in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts, where they live. They offer freely-given hospitality to poor and homeless people in their home.
Training for Direct Support Workers who Assist Children and Adults with Disabilities Residing in Diverse Settings. A Three Tier Series: Valued Social Roles as a Means of Addressing Devaluation
Registration Form
Please mail or fax your registration form to:
Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities
460 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 418-6003 (FAX)
Deadline: SEPTEMBER 11, 2009
Important Note: You are registering for all 3 sessions. Participation in the session “Understanding the Societal Context: What People with Impairments are Up Against” is required to attend the second session. Participation in “Understanding the Societal Context: What People with Impairments are Up Against” AND “Problem Solving From A Social Role Valorization Perspective” are required to attend the third session. Attending only one or two sessions in the series is not permitted.
Also, while this series is FREE, you or your agency will be billed $125.00 if you sign up and fail to attend a session.
Name: _______________________________________________________
Organization (If Applicable): _____________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Phone: _____________________ E-mail: ________________________
Please check here _____ if a personal assistant will attend the program with you.
Please check below to indicate which dates you plan attend:
Understanding the Societal Context: What People with Impairments are Up Against (Check only one)
q April 28, 2009 CLOSED
q May 28, 2009 FULL. REGISTRATON CLOSED
q September 23, 2009
Problem Solving from a Social Role Valorization Perspective (Check only one)
q June 10, 2009 FULL REGISTRATION CLOSED
q October 7, 2009
The Tension Between Personal Autonomy and Community Living: An Examination of the “Rights” Issue
November 4, 2009
Meals
Examples of the types of sandwiches are: assorted 6” hard roll and wraps;
turkey, ham, roast beef, veggie and tuna; American cheese, lettuce, tomato,
mayo and mustard packets; bag of chips and cookies; assorted cans of cold
soda and bottled water. If you need to request an alternate menu, please
indicate your dietary request below:
Accommodations
Please check here _____ to request a American Sign Language (ASL)
Interpreter, or contact the Council’s office by phone, TTY or e-mail.
Please use the space below to request additional accommodations to make
the series accessible to you.
For additional information, please contact:
Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities
460 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 418-6160 (voice), 418-6172 (TTY)
1-800-653-1134 (toll-free in CT)
e-mail: Ed.Preneta@ct.gov