Episode 2: Host Chet Tschetter talks with LeAnn Bieber about healthcare person-centered profiles

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- Hi, my name is Chet Cheddar,

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and I'll be your host for a closer look

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where we'll explore the most current

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and relevant topics covered

in Frontline Initiative,

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which is a magazine produced

by the National Alliance

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for Direct Support

Professionals in partnership

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with the University of

Minnesota's Institute on

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Community Integration.

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If you're wondering what

Frontline Initiative is all about,

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it's about the work that direct

support professionals do on

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a day-to-Day basis as they

support people with intellectual

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and developmental disabilities.

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I'll be talking to authors

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and taking a closer look

at current practices,

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tools, and resources.

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So buckle up and let's hear

what the authors have to say.

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Today I am gonna be

talking to Leanne Bieber,

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who wrote an article called The Key

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to Successful Healthcare Appointments

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through One Page Descriptions.

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It was published in frontline

initiatives issue called

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Direct Support Professionals Supporting

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People's Health and Wellness.

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Leanne's gonna talk about how tools such

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as a healthcare person-centered profile,

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and a one-page description can

make a medical appointment go

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better for everybody.

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So let's get started Today my

guest is Leanne Bieber from

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Byron Minnesota.

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We asked her to write

an article for Frontline

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because of her experience

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as a person-centered planning instructor,

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who's also used the

COVID-19 Health Passport

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with her own daughter Melissa.

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Welcome, Leanne.

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We're so happy to have you here today

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for our very first podcast.

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- Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

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- Can you tell us a

little bit about yourself?

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- I, like you said, I

have a daughter, Melissa,

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who's 24 years old and has been

labeled with Down Syndrome.

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She's my pride and joy.

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She lives with us at home

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and really that's, that's my

main job, is taking care of her

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and, and helping her to

be all she wants to be.

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I also am a person-centered

thinking trainer and planner,

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and work with a lot of

person-centered processes

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to help people better their lives or,

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or get their communication

to other people,

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what they're looking for.

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I do a lot of my work through

my job at Olmsted County

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and then work with providers

on a regular basis to see what

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we can do to help the people

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that they're supporting

help them as an agency

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to support better

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and just really get the

word out there about

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person-centered practices.

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- That sounds great. Leanne,

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can you tell us about

the tools in the article

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that you wrote and why they're so helpful

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for everyone involved in

a medical appointment?

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We know that medical appointments

can be extremely anxiety

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driven and difficult for many people,

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but why is it so important

for like your daughter

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and others who might

need that extra support?

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- Absolutely. First impressions

are always so important

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with anybody and anywhere you are

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the first impression that you give.

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And many times when someone has a label

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or a a diagnosis of some

sort, that is the first thing

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that people hear about somebody,

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and it really gives that

whole medical version of who

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that person is, where you're missing,

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who the person really is,

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and you're missing really how a person

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wants to be supported.

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The one page description is a

great way to help get someone,

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the informa, give someone the information

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that they're looking for

to start that small talk

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in any situation.

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So for instance, a doctor wants

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to make a person feel more

comfortable as they start talking

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with them so that they

can get the information

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that they need as quickly as

possible and move forward.

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When you have somebody's gifts, strengths

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and talents on there,

or what someone likes

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what they do on a regular

basis, that's on a quick

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two minute read, that

doctor has the ability

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to start those conversations right away.

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They, they know a little

bit about the person.

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It's also a visual, so it helps people

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to remember these things.

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So down the road, when Melissa's in

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for her next appointment,

the doctor's going

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to remember those conversations even more

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after all the people that they see it.

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It helps 'em to really pull that out more.

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Melissa's one page description

has her picture on it

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and her smile is infectious,

and I could say it as mom,

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but I've heard it so many times

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that she has such an in infectious smile.

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So that tool itself gives people

a very positive outlook the

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minute they look at her face

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and the minute they, they

start to read all of that,

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and then the section

that talks about how best

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to support her really gives

that more information of,

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of the why, why does she

need the extra support,

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and then how do you do it and,

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and how do you work through it.

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So because of those things,

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that tool is one of my favorites.

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It just really helps to, to

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get good conversations started

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and those critical

conversations that are needed.

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- It sounds to me like it's

really a win-win situation

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for the person who's going to the doctor,

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but also for the doctor

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or the health professional to

have a better understanding

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of, you know, who they're

gonna be supporting,

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who they're gonna be serving

and providing that expertise.

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- Yes, and you think about

it, you can send this

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to a doctor in an email

through a portal, through

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however, so they can re

receive it ahead of time.

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And again, looking at that

face is gonna put a smile on

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their face and maybe hopefully

start their day in a very

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positive outlook as well,

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and then they're going to be

ready for that appointment.

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Very important. In our training,

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we do talk about a scenario

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where someone had two

appointments in the same day

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and sent a one page

description to both of them.

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One had a chance to read it

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and the other did not, where

the other, the one appointment

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where they did not get

a chance to read it,

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they ended up having to

reschedule the appointment

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because it just didn't go

well, it wasn't successful

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and the person really struggled.

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So thinking about having

to reschedule appointments

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that are hard to get

into in the first place

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versus having a successful,

successful appointment

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that sets everybody up

for a really good day

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and for great treatment

options to go forward.

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- Yeah. The other thing I was

thinking about, Leanne, was

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how great it is a, it's

great for everybody,

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but especially for people

who maybe don't use

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words language, ver vocal

language to be able to interact

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with the physician, that

it gives some conversation,

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it gives them the physicians

something to talk about

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because they know what that

individual is interested in.

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What do you think about that?

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- Yeah, I agree. It, it definitely does.

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It gives a, I don't always

like the word empowerment,

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but really an empowerment to that person.

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If, when you look at Melissa's

one page description,

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one thing that's in there is

that it says that she likes

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to be independent, and it's hard for her

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to be independent when

she does not use words

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to speak when she relies

on me in a lot of ways.

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So when a doctor can say, Melissa,

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I I see you love the show Heartland,

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and you love, love horses,

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Melissa will get a smile on her face

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and it will be something

that will help her

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to at least be a little

more intently listening so

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that she can be involved

in the conversation.

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She may not give her,

give a lot of information,

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but it does give her that

ability to be involved

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and be as independent as

she can in that moment.

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- Right. And I would think

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that it also is just gonna

make her feel more comfortable

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because that physician like took the time

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and is interested in her

as a person, like really

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sees who she is.

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The other thing that I, I

learned from Melissa's one page

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description was when you wrote about

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if you think something's

gonna take a certain amount

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of time, it's gonna take longer than that.

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So give that space

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and know that if you interrupt that time,

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it starts again at zero.

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How insightful for anybody

to have that information.

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- Right. And, and honestly, a

lot of people need that space.

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They need that time,

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and not just necessarily

somebody with a disability,

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but many people process in that way.

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So being able to tell somebody that in,

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in this way we're talking

about a medical doctor

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or a dentist

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or something like that,

I use these one page page

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descriptions at work as

well for supervisors to have

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that same ability to

know, you know, this is

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how you best support the person,

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and they need some time

to figure some things out

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to move forward with the conversation.

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So knowing that you can, that the little

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pause is something that's very

helpful for someone to help

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with that processing.

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- Yeah, I, I love that you

brought up that it's a tool

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that can be used at work as well and,

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and really at home really in

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so many different places in your life.

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And how cool if DSPs as, as a group

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of staff members we're able to do

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a one page description for themselves

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and then that share that with each other.

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You would just learn so much,

so much about your coworkers

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and how to, to better support them,

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and they can better

understand you as well.

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- Yeah. Melissa has a

few different respite

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individuals that are in her life,

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and one had started supporting her one day

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and had taken her to Dairy

Queen, and she called me

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and I hadn't had the opportunity to,

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to share Melissa's one

page description, which

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that was really on me.

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I needed to, to get that

information to her right away.

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But anyway, she called me at Dairy Queen

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and she says, you know, we,

she was in such a great mood,

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we were doing really well.

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We got her ice cream,

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and all of a sudden she got

very frustrated and upset and a

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and just, now I, I can't seem

to figure out what to do.

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And I, I asked her right away, I said,

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are there any children around?

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And she says, well, yeah,

as a matter of fact,

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a birthday party just walked in the door

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and young children running around and,

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and causing, you know, they

were laughing and giggling

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and having fun, but for some reason

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that's a trigger for Melissa.

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So I was able to tell her

that is that, you know, I,

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I do have this one page

description to share with you.

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This is a trigger.

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They moved out on the deck

at the Dairy Queen and,

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and it was, they had a,

a good time after that.

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So again, another place where

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that one page description would've been

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so helpful for her right away.

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- Right, right.

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Are there any other

tools that are available

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besides a one page description?

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- There are many tools

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that are available within

person-centered processes,

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like a what's working

not, which gets into a lot

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of different perspectives

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and how you can really

determine conflicts like

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where someone like maybe

A DSP is in conflict

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with someone they're supporting,

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but you can't figure out why

when it's really as simple

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as this person D doesn't like

the way something's been done,

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and the DSP has always done it that way.

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Or maybe it's that a, a family

member does something one way

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and A DSP does it differently

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and that person is struggling

with the two differences.

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So that's another great tool

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to really look at conflict resolution.

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It also is a really great

way to pull out goals.

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So doing some goal setting

to where people want

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to go go next with something.

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That's one. There are so

many examples of, that's one

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of the more popular ones,

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but Melissa also has a

communication chart that she uses

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because she doesn't

use many words to speak

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or chooses when she uses those words.

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Being able to understand those things,

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like when there's a child running around

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and she's getting upset

in somewhere, we have

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that down on a chart that really

looks at her communication

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and then what she wants us

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to do when these things are happening.

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Again, I could go on and on, but rituals

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and routines is another one.

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We all have different routines

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and rituals that we do in our lives

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and being able to write down

what those rule routines are,

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so, so people understand

that, you know, I'm used

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to showering in the morning,

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but now you're having me shower at night

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and I'm really struggling with this.

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Or maybe I really like the

change, you know, I used

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to shower in the morning, but

I like showering at night.

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It really calms me during the day.

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So really understanding differences, a lot

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of tools in that respect.

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There is also things,

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something called charting the Life course

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that really co charts a vision

to where somebody wants to go

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with their life and then

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how people can help keep someone

on track with that vision.

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Many, many other things that are out there

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that we use on a regular basis.

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- Sounds like there

are a lot of good tools

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that can really help.

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One of the things you

said was planning for

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what, what and how Melissa

wants you to interact

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or to handle situations

I think was so important

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and in such a key component

of a one page description

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and what does the person want,

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what's gonna be best for them?

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It's so individualized,

so I would just like DSPs

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to remember, you know,

one size does not fit all.

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Everybody's different in, in

how they're gonna respond and,

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and what, how they wanna be supported.

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- Absolutely. Another thing

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that is real important

is sometimes you can use

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all these tools.

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They're real quick and easy.

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You don't even need a

piece of paper to use them.

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Sometimes you need a

little more formal process

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where you are writing down that

what's working, not working,

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or a communication chart or whatever.

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When you have that more formal

process, that is something

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that there are facilitators

that will do that for a group.

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Many times. Having that

unbiased person come in

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and be able to really

gather all the information

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and help the person to

really tell their story

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really helps somebody to

get down a, a good vision of

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where they want to go so that it is a,

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that is an opportunity for people

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with disabilities at

least to, you know, if,

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if you want a person-centered plan,

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there are people within Minnesota

that will do that for you.

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- Where would you find something like that

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or someone like that?

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- A start would be to

contact the Department

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of Human Services.

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If you have a case manager,

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a case manager can

typically find where those,

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that those individuals are

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- With there being so many

tools available, Leanne,

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and it can definitely be

overwhelming, I think for a DSP

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or frontline frontline

supervisor to know kind of

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where to start.

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What would you suggest they

do to kind of get started

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- Reaching out to a person-centered

thinking trainer would

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be a really great place to start.

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If they're not a facilitator,

they can find a facilitator in

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that area to find a

person-centered Thinking trainer.

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You could go to the learning community.

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They have a website that works

on person-centered practices,

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and that website is tlc pct.org,

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and then there's a place

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where you can search

trainers in your area.

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- Great. Thank you.

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Leanne, do you have any

final words of encouragement

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or wisdom that you'd

like to share with the,

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the listeners about any of the stuff

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that we talked about today?

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- Well, I wanna thank you

all for, for those of you

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that are DSPs and frontline

supervisors, that's a very self,

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self selfless job

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and we really appreciate your help.

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Like I said, my daughter's

at home right now,

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but when she's ready

to move on her own, I,

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I really appreciate all

the work that you do

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and we know it's, it's not always work

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that you see people value, but we do.

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We value it very, very much

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and looking at person-centered

processes is gonna be a

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win-win for you as well as

the people that you support.

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So looking at those

processes, using the tools

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that you can use is only gonna

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make your your life a lot easier.

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- Thank you, Leanne, for joining me today.

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It was a pleasure talking with you

Speaker: 00:18:03

and learning more from you about how

Speaker: 00:18:06

to really implement person-centered

planning and thinking

Speaker: 00:18:10

and different tools

that you shared with us.

Speaker: 00:18:13

I also wanna thank the

listeners for tuning in today.

Speaker: 00:18:16

We appreciate you.

Speaker: 00:18:17

As Leanne said, the work

that you do is so important

Speaker: 00:18:21

and we really appreciate it.

Speaker: 00:18:23

You can find other

episodes of this podcast

Speaker: 00:18:27

and Health Matters for direct support,

Speaker: 00:18:29

another podcast produced by the University

Speaker: 00:18:32

of Minnesota's Institute on

community integration on your

Speaker: 00:18:35

favorite pod podcast streaming service.

Speaker: 00:18:39

Until next time, be kind

to yourself and others.