At Wesley Community Action there are some principles that shape how we work

WCA’s practice

At WCA we pay a lot of attention to how we can work more effectively alongside people and have developed a "Wesley Way" poster that highlights our unique way of working.  To download a PDF copy, please click here. Please appreciate that WCA claims copyright to 'The Wesley Way'.

Research tells us that what we do bears very little significance to good outcomes, but ‘how’ we do it, bears a lot of significance. We use two client rated measures - an outcome rating scale and session rating scale that support us to focus on the relationship and the client.

 In our line of work a lot of focus is placed on the “D List”- the Deficits and Dysfunctions - what’s going wrong, what’s not working and what people are not doing. We know that what you focus on grows, so we focus on what is working in peoples lives- and building on that- than whats not working. We don’t describe people by the one or two things they don’t do very well- but by the many things they do well.

Conversely, by applying attention to what is working, to what skills, resilience and achievements have been made; leaves room for people to see how they can manage and control their own issues and lives, and that in many cases they have all the skills needed to do this. Our work is to support them in identifying and mobilising those skills.

This doesn’t mean we encourage our clients to ignore the challenges and bad stuff, but it does require us to approach people and situations with a set of principles which include:

• deep respect for people and their situations 
• a belief that everyone has strengths and resources 
• a conviction that people are their own best experts and know what is needed to change their situations 
• that it is very unhelpful to label people and diagnose them with a set of ‘problems and disorders.’ This does not leave room for individuality, change and growth 
• that power imbalances harm growth and that we need to ensure we shift the power from the practitioner, to the person 

In summary - Strengths Based Practice

• Is an approach to people, which is primarily dependent upon positive attitudes about people’s dignity, capacities, rights, uniqueness and commonalities. 
• Emphasises people’s ability to be their own agents of change by creating conditions that enable them to control and direct the process of change. 
• Creates conditions that enable people to identify and mobilise their strengths and capacities in the process of change. 
• Provides resources in a way that compliments people’s existing strengths as opposed to compensating for deficits. 
• Acknowledges and addresses power imbalances between those we work with. 
• Seeks to identify and address social, personal, cultural and structural constraints to people’s growth, and liberation. 
• Recognises and acts to address dynamics inherent in organisational practices and structures that are incongruent with strengths–based principles and process. 

* In using the term ‘Strength Based’ WCA acknowledges the support and resources of the St Luke’s organisation.

Wesley and CDOI

At WCA we have a set of processes that ensure we stay true to the strength based approach and these include using a client feedback process (CDOI or Client Directed Outcome Informed) to ensure the client directs and manages the process of change.

Over 1,000 international studies have found there is no difference in outcomes for clients when comparing different approaches or methods used by workers.

For example when researchers compare approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Theory, 12 step method, motivational interviewing, and strength based etc., they find that all of these approaches work equally well, some of the time, with some of the people.

The research shows that the client’s own rating of the alliance or relationship is the best single predictor of outcomes, and yet it is the most ignored. We tend to spend all our time, energy and money on developing new ways of relating to clients, new programmes and new therapies when the key predictor is right in front of us.

As part of our commitment to CDOI, WCA has hosted Dr Barry Duncan, an Internationally respected researcher and practitioner and co-developer of the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and Session Rating Scale,(SRS) to visit NZ to train both our staff, and other interested organisations, in CDOI.

Via the two measures – the ORS and SRS, the client documents changes and growth in a way that is consistently solution focused and feeds back how they see the ‘fit’ between service/worker and their own theories of how to do things.

When we ensure the client directs the process of change and match the way we work with the way they feel most comfortable.... that is when amazing things can happen.

2010/11 Independent Evaluation of CDOI

In 2010 Wesley Community Action submitted a proposal to HWNZ Innovation fund for testing and evaluating the Client-Directed and Outcome Improved (CDOI) approach within the aged care, disability, healthy lifestyles, and mental health sectors.   The specific objectives of the project were to:

• monitor the implementation of CDOI in order to determine factors that help or hinder the achievement of successful outcomes for staff and for clients
• gain feedback from staff on their perceptions of the benefits of CDOI – both for themselves in the workplace, and for clients
• consider the extent to which CDOI can act as a mechanism for improving staff satisfaction and productivity
• determine the extent to which the effectiveness of this approach can be expanded from the mental health/therapy environment to other areas of health care provision (for example, aged care).

The implementation of CDOI at the demonstration sites within Wesley Community Action ran from November 2010 to July 2011 and an external evaluation has now been completed.  The full evaluation report is attached to this report, and describes in detail the implementation of the CDOI tools, the issues relating to the use of the tools, and the outcomes achieved to date.

This report briefly summarizes the CDOI approach, the key messages/learnings from the evaluation report and notes areas for future action within Wesley, including comment on communicating the evaluation findings and Wesley’s experience implementing CDOI.

For a summary of the findings, click here.

For the full detailed findings, click here.