The Implementation of a Model of Person-Centred Practice In Older ...

The implementation of a model of person-centred practice in older person settings
required to bring all staff on board with person centredness and reflective practice - a
must to learn from actions. Continuous feedback to all stake holders is so important
...” (Reflection from DoN)
Whilst practice development is not dependent on effective management, as the
evidence demonstrates how emancipatory change can exist ‘in spite’ of managers
(and indeed this is evident in one site on this programme), managers play a crucial
role in creating the ‘necessary and sufficient’ conditions for emancipatory change to
flourish, as indicated in the reflection of the DoN above. They also can positively
communicate the contribution of practice development approaches to corporate
managers. This is a critical consideration for all future programmes.
3. There is universal acceptance of the need for patient/service user
involvement (or engagement) in practice development work.
This programme focused on three key aspects of involvement with service users
especially older people:
• Facilitating participants to learn from the experiences of older people and to
regard the information they acquired as a reputable source of evidence that can
be used to influence practice
• To provide structures whereby older people could have a voice in how their home
operated and how services were provided
• Learning alongside older people within the programme
The programme day data and reflective accounts indicate that participants went
through a process of learning how to learn from and with older people. To begin with
many participants were sceptical about asking older people about their experiences.
The more frail and cognitively impaired the older person the less staff felt or believed
that the older person had anything to offer in terms of knowledge. A theme that is
often seen the literature (McKeown et al 2010). Life experiences were regarded as
stories that may or may not be truthful. Connected to this there was a high level of
concern about whether what older people said was truthful or not. Through a range
of programme activities and the narrative evaluation method, participants were able
to come to value that truth is not fixed and not even the priority when it comes to life
stories, narratives and reminiscences. At the beginning, staff were genuinely
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