Conference Proceedings Report - Final Draft - National Federation ...

Parallel Workshop 3 – How can we respond creatively to what we hear?
Session Director: Hugh Kane
Rappateur: Richard Collins
Co-ordinator: Jillian Sexton
Thought Provocateur: Dr. Patricia O’Brien
Speakers:
Mr. Bob Rhodes
Ms. Molly O’Keefe
Ms. Una Healy
Ms. Jan Mahon
Mr. Christy Lynch
This session explored new ways of providing real choices for people. The thought
provocateur for this workshop was Dr. Patricia O’Brien of the National Institute for
Intellectual Disability. There were three papers presented in this workshop, from Mr. Bob
Rhodes, Ms. Molly O’Keefe, Ms. Una Healy, Ms. Jan Mahon and Mr. Christy Lynch, all
addressing the question of ‘How can we respond creatively to what we hear?’
Dr. Patricia O’Brien is the Director of the National Institute for Intellectual Disability
(NIID), Trinity College. Dr. O’Brien made the argument that responding creatively to the
needs of people with intellectual disability needs to be built upon a foundation where
people are authentically rather than falsely listened to; where trustworthy alliances
between people with intellectual disability, their families and professionals replace
partnerships where power is imbalanced; and where services move from providing
traditional service to a range of support options. The Provocateur spoke of how the
traditional model of service provision where people’s needs are met as part of a group is
outdated, and that creative solutions are needed to reframe service provision in Ireland.
With the theory of creative responses to what we hear in mind, Dr. O’Brien also stressed
the importance of new relationships emerging between managers, staff, people with
intellectual disability and families. For service professionals this means relinquishing the
power inherent in the provision of services in favour of developing alliances that place
their knowledge, values, technical skills and expertise at the disposal of people with
intellectual disabilities and /or their families to support them in ways that are self
determined.
Mr. Bob Rhodes is the founder of TACT UK – an award winning social enterprise that
supports people who have acquired very challenging reputations to live ordinary and
contributing lives in the real world. In his paper, ‘A Good Life’ - The central role of the
family as leaders in Canada, Mr. Rhodes presented a simple introduction to the story of
PLAN – a family leadership phenomena that has successfully developed an approach that
often leads to, “the social service system and its institutions play(ing) a supplementary
role”, and thus provided real choices for people. He also spoke of how it is increasingly
apparent that our preoccupation with designing and delivering perfect services has
blinded us to the simple fact that our service systems – no matter how ‘good’ – cannot
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