personal safety & boundary setting tips for home visitors home visitation summit september...
TRANSCRIPT
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Personal Safety & Boundary Setting Tips for Home Visitors
Home Visitation SummitSeptember 29-30, 2014
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Exercise
Look at the picture of the family just given to you
Identify 5-10 strengths of this family. Be ready to share your thoughts with the group
How does this situation pertain to you as a home visitor?
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Home Visiting Field Practice
• Can vary according to the rules of your own home visiting program.
• Runs the gamut, from focusing on play and reading only, to intervening regarding multiple family needs.
• Home Visiting is a service delivery approach, not a program in itself.
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Who typically visits families?
• Other family members• Friends• Neighbors• Repair people• Early Intervention services• Home health care providers• How does a Home Visitor fit in?
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What are “Professional Boundaries?”
• Important line between a professional relationship and a friendship or other personal relationship.
• Boundaries give the Home Visitor a pathway to being objective and to make good decisions when working with families.
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What Creates a Struggle with Finding Your Boundaries?
• Working with families can bring up strong feelings.
• Acting on just feelings can lead to decisions that could be harmful to families.
• Building a trusting relationship with a family can feel similar to a friendship.
• You might strongly identify with a family.
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Exercise
• Find a partner who you don’t know.• Tell the partner about an instance where you
had a problem maintaining boundaries during a home visit.
• You will report back to the larger group about what your partner has told you.
• Be attuned to cultural issues.• This means you have to be an active listener!
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Ethics
• It is our ethnical responsibility to maintain appropriate boundaries.
• Ethics = a system of principles and perceptions about right and wrong, and the resulting philosophy that is practiced within a group, culture, or profession.
• The helping professions have to be particularly mindful about professional ethics, especially those who work in homes.
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Home Visiting is a Professional Relationship
• Always be mindful of the services and assistance that you are supposed to provide.
• There are legal and ethical implications in what you do – this is different than a friendship.
• What else is there about the Home Visitor’s role that is different than a friendship?
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Friend vs. Home Visitor: Availability
• A friend might take phone calls at any time of day or any day of the week, but a Home Visitor might have specific hours to receive phone calls.
• A friend might welcome a family into her own home or stop by a friend’s home to chat, but a Home Visitor has specified appointments.
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Friend vs. Home Visitor: Concrete Aid
• Friends sometimes share belongings, but a Home Visitor might make referrals for help.
• Friends sometimes lend or give money, but a Home Visitor should make referrals for help.
• Friends might do errands for each other, but a Home Visitor must always stay within the boundaries of her job.
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Friend vs. Home Visitor: Emotional and Social Support
• Friends seek emotional support from each other in a two-way relationship, sharing both worries and successes.
• In the home visiting relationship, the Home Visitor should never seek emotional support or social support, or any sort of practical help, from the families being served.
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Friend vs. Home Visitor: Emotional and Social Support
• Friends become “like family” to one another, but the families that you visit should never become involved in your own life.
• On the other hand, Home Visitors can get involved in their program families’ lives, but ONLY to the extent that the program allows. This will vary by program.
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Friend vs. Home Visitor: Emotional and Social Support
• Families might invite you to birthday parties, or other family events.
• Your response to these invitations should be guided by your program rules and your supervisor.
• Always ask yourself: “Am I thinking about what is best to support this family’s strengths, or am I reacting a certain way to support my own needs?”
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Exercise
• Brainstorm and write down at least 5 rules that pertain to the ethical boundaries in your home visiting program.
• List “hard” boundaries that you should never cross.
• List “soft” boundaries where you might be flexible.
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Exercise: What Do You Do?
• When a parent invites you to a birthday party?• When a parent asks you for taxi fare?• When a parent calls you at night or on the
weekend?• When a parent asks for your help regarding
her conflict with her husband?• When a parent asks you to babysit?
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Exercise: What Do You Do?
• When you are tempted to help a program parent find work?
• When you are consistently reluctant to visit a particular family?
• When you consistently have a feeling of wanting to “rescue” a family?
• When a parent offers you food?
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Exercise: What Do You Do?
• When you can’t stop thinking about a family during non-work time?
• When a parent makes you angry?• When a parent keeps asking for services that
are not part of your program?• When a parent responds in a confrontational or
angry way that you didn’t anticipate?• When you don’t understand something about a
family’s culture?
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Supervision
• Supervision is a key component for all home visiting programs.
• Your supervisor should be helping you to work out your strongest feelings and there should be regular meetings to help you do so.
• Your supervisor should consistently support home visiting staff by reminding everyone about establishing and maintaining boundaries.
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Self-Reflection
• Supervisors should consistently help you self-reflect about feelings, about the role of culture, and about what is “pushing your buttons.”
• Supervisors should ask you questions to help you self-reflect, and all Home Visitors should have the opportunity to help each other self-reflect.
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Self-Reflection
• How do you form a relationship?• What is your definition of relationship?• Who do you have a relationship with when
home visiting?• How do you wish to present yourself?• How do your program families view you?
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Trust
• What are techniques you use to develop trust with program families?
• Do you have to use different techniques with different families?
• Why do some families have difficulty trusting?
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Tug of War
• You will experience the “tug of war” between building a trusting relationship with families and establishing/maintaining boundaries.
• The more you practice, the less the struggle will become.
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Personal Safety Tips
1. Be aware of the neighborhood2. Pre-screening of home environment3. Parking & walking to & from home4. Work issued cell phone5. Having someone know your schedule
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Personal Safety Tips
6. Build relationship with local police5. Other family members in home6. Pets7. Mace/pepper spray8. Locating exits
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Personal Safety Tips
9. Sensing danger & leaving the situation10. Bringing a second staff if necessary11. Suspicion of or witnessing abuse or D&A12. TRUST YOUR GUT!!
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Thank You!
Cathy ZiegenfussFamily Connection of EastonParent-Child Home Program
[email protected] x20018