People Are Respected
I was teaching a colleague how to conduct a Personal Outcomes Measures® interview and recruited a young woman named Gwen to be our volunteer. I knew Gwen well and greeted her by name each day when I saw her in the hallways at work. Gwen enjoyed the interview process and answered all of the questions with a positive, upbeat inflection in her voice. My colleague took the lead on asking questions as I observed and jumped in only as needed. The last question that my colleague asked during the interview was “What name do you preferred to be called?” This is a question I’m certain I would have skipped if conducting the interview myself. Her name was Gwen and everyone knew that. I caught my breath as I heard her say, “I have a beautiful name. My name is Gwendolyn, but nobody calls me that here. When I’m at this
place, I’m just Gwen.” Gwendolyn reminded me how easy it is to assume that we know what a person wants and the power of simply asking. - Becky Hansen
People Have Natural Supports
There are many stories about re-uniting people with estranged family members after learning about these in a Personal Outcome interview. One was recently shared with me by the staff of Monarch in New Bern, North Carolina. The man, whom I will call Ben, was nearing his 60th birthday when he was interviewed. The interviewer discovered Ben had brothers and sisters he had not seen in over 40 years. Ben had been removed from his natural home as a child and placed in a state institution. Ben had a few names of family members and thought his family might still be living in the Outer Banks but had lost all contact with them. The search was on. A few clicks of the computer and an internet search turned up a potential sister. Contact was made. The sister remembered Ben but was sure he was dead. When told he was alive and living just a
short distance away, the sister almost broke into song. A reunion was arranged. Most of Ben's siblings were still alive along with multitude of nieces, nephews and cousins. The pictures of that reunion and the looks on the faces of the people that surrounded Ben still bring tears to the staff at Monarch. "We not only changed Ben's life that day. We changed the lives of all those people." - Vickie Overpeck
