The Heroic Agencies Vision
We envision a future where clients' heroic stories overshadow descriptions of illness and client-directed partnerships revolutionize "mental health" as we know it.
______________________
The Heart and Soul Conference
June 10-12, 2004
Click here to view photos from the conference
______________________
Heroic Clients, Heroic Agencies, Partners for Change
By Barry Duncan and Jacqueline Sparks
In this brief, easy-to-read manual, therapists, counselors, case managers, students, supervisors, and administrators of agencies will find step-by-step instructions for conducting client-directed, outcome-informed (co) therapy services. Written in common, everyday language, the manual contains suggestions for everything from the "nuts and bolts" of helpful therapeutic conversations to using systematic and ongoing feedback from clients to evaluate and enhance outcome. This manual details the “how tos” of involving clients as valued partners and provides down-to-earth suggestions for bringing justice to your agency, and perhaps beyond.
From the Preface
Unfortunately, the mountain of evidence that researchers have amassed—against the special curative abilities of any approach and in support of clients and their participation—has had little impact on mental health service delivery. Absence of the client has resulted in our reliance on the “five D's” (diagnosis, disease, dysfunction, disorder, and deficit). When services are provided without intimate connection to those receiving them, the client is depersonalized—becomes a cardboard cutout—and is only the object of our professional whims. Giving voice to what has always been present but never heard allows us to critically examine our practices and construct a work environment that is heroic. This manual will help those of you on a quest to enter full partnerships with clients to fashion your agency in line with: 1) a preference for seeing clients as human beings whose heroic stories overshadow descriptions of illness; 2) a preference for inviting and even amplifying, at times, clients’ voices in their own fate; and 3) a preference for honoring the power of partnership in overcoming the struggles of human existence.
This manual:
-
Is for helpers of all stripes and flavors regardless of degree, discipline, or job title
-
Outlines specific steps for entering full partnerships with clients in all phases of service delivery
-
Provides the “how to” for doing client-directed, outcome-informed therapy, counseling, and case-management.
-
Condenses the research literature to practical empirically supported guidelines for effective practice
-
Gives nuts and bolts suggestions for the situations that trouble you most
-
Details therapist-friendly ways to monitor effectiveness and partner with clients to make services accountable
-
Provides both outcome and process measures and licenses their use
-
Suggests pragmatic ways to make your agency more client directed, from how your space is arranged to how you write reports
-
Provides upbeat tools to critically examine the practices and beliefs of mental health and substance abuse services and practical ways to change those that do not involve the client as valued partners
-
Invites readers to reflect on their own identity as helpers and encourages steps toward a preferred identity
-
Includes helpful audio or videotape illustrations of the co therapy process in a step-by-step fashion
Click Here For Info On How To Buy the Manual