1.1 Personalisation and you
Whether you use health and care services, are a carer, a parent or practitioner, you will have your own views about personalisation as well as ideas and questions. The first activity in this section asks you to start to identify what you know – and would like to know – about personalisation.
Activity 1.1: Concerns and questions about personalisation
To get you started, begin by viewing a short video about personalisation. It is an excerpt from an Open University panel event in front of a live audience in Dumfries in the south-west of Scotland. This panel met with a self-directed support stakeholder group in Dumfries and Galloway in January 2013. Its members give their definition of, and general views about, what personalisation means to them.
Concerns and questions about personalisation
Use your learning log to note down your thoughts and any questions you have about personalisation and self-directed support. From time to time as you work through the course, come back to these concerns or questions to see if your study has helped to answer your queries.
Every learner will have compiled a different list of thoughts and questions. Here are some common questions asked about personalisation and self-directed support:
- How much control will I have if my support is 'self-directed'?
- Different people have different kinds of care needs – can personalisation cater for all kinds of people?
- What if children disagree with their parents or adults disagree with family carers about their support needs – who decides how the support should be directed?
- How safe is self-directed support for children and adults who use services?
- Will professionals like social workers and support workers lose their jobs as we move towards personalised services?
- How will personalisation work in times of transition, such as when a young person moves into adulthood, or an older adult begins to lose their decision-making ability?
- Can people with cognitive impairments such as severe dementia or a brain injury truly direct their own care?
Remember to come back to your list of questions as you work through the course. You may also want to return to look at this video again. You will find more links to other parts of The Open University panel event as you work through this course.