ANNUAL REPORT 2010 / 2011 - MINDS

planning or representing clients’ interest when coordinating with
other service providers, the quality of professional support from
our AHPs will be needed. Developing such deep competencies
requires an environment with the right structures and incentives
where the AHPs could flourish. The timely introduction of the AHP
Bill also serves as an impetus to upgrade MINDS’ professional
standards, put in place a peer review system and case range
exposure so as to meet the requirements of an Approved Centre.
Career Pathway and Professional Leadership Appointments
A career development pathway was implemented so that young
AHPs can look forward to a progression within MINDS. To ensure
sufficient focus on the AHPs’ development, two professional
leadership appointments (PLAs) were created from the senior level
AHPs who had demonstrated professional leadership potential.
They are the Head of Discipline and Team Leaders. Together with
Chairman and Director of AHP Services, these appointment holders
are entrusted to think strategically; and to anticipate, embrace,
and lead changes. These positions may also have operational or
resource management responsibility of small discipline teams. As
of 1 January 2011, 6 PLA holders across the 5 AHP disciplines were
appointed. The PLA holder’s responsibilities also include disciplinewide
strategic planning which seize opportunities and trends in
the industry or profession to develop new strategies, policies,
processes, and solutions that will create value for the organisation
and clients. They will develop and monitor workplans aligned to
MINDS strategic direction; conduct intra- and inter-disciplinary
research and projects to identify service gaps, and recommend
relevant policy and service development changes.
Job Rotation/Posting
Job rotation and posting will enrich the AHPs’ professional
experience and expose them to greater opportunity to apply
different intervention skills and techniques with different clientele
groups. For disciplines covered by the new AHP Bill, such rotation
is also a requirement. This will introduce variation to their work
repertoire, increase job satisfaction, and decrease feeling of
burnout, fatigue, boredom and apathy. Rotation and posting to
different MINDS schools and adult centres will also provide case
range exposure across age groups such as paediatrics, adults, and
geriatrics. This can be a motivating factor for those AHPs who want
to work with greater breadth of cases and enhance professional
satisfaction, retention, and leadership development.
The duration of each posting would generally increase with seniority,
but will be subject to exigencies of service. Where feasible, the
guiding principle in the rotation would be to ensure that all AHPs
have the opportunity to be exposed to all MINDS’ sectors.
FY 2011/12 WORKPLAN
• To provide and organize the necessary networks internally
and externally which can enhance the professional standards
of the AHPs through clinical supervision, case consultation,
career coaching, mentoring and team building.
• To develop professional development plans and training
roadmaps for the various AHP disciplines and the SOP for job
posting/rotation.
• To contribute AHP expertise for programmes and service
development through the AHP study teams on various subject
matters related to intellectual disability.
• To grow the practitioner research culture in MINDS through
the development of multidisciplinary proposals for conference
papers and scientific journal publications.
• To develop public education materials and give public talks to
raise awareness on intellectual disability, educate caregivers,
public, and stakeholders etc.
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