Hey folks. Those of us here at PDA feel honored to be selected as a finalist. There are many awesome entries in this competition and it feels great to be among so many visionary people who are passionate about helping make this world a better place.
I'm so glad to see that CommonGround has been chosen as a finalist! I've been working with CommonGround in a peer support center for a few months and have been able to witness some pretty amazing things. Our participants who use CommonGround are reporting feeling empowered and that it is helping them talk with their physicians better. I even saw CommonGround allow someone who did not know how to reach out for help, not even with us the peer staff, and he used the CommonGround report to do just that. He told me later that it felt good to be heard and helped him to know that there were people who cared. I wish CommonGround had been around during my early recovery!
I, too, wish that CommonGround had been around during the early days of my recovery. What a powerful tool! Not only does the program work as assistive technology by giving voice to the things I sometimes have no language for, but also for the way it is combined with and supported by peer interactions. Thanks.
Common ground Is a Great Tool Used To Empower people in their decision making.
Both around lifestyle changes and medication issues.
I highly recommend using this to help change a persons perspective.
Thanks for you comment Isaac. CommonGround supports people in making lifestyle changes. In fact, we help people discover "Personal Medicine" or the things we can DO to improve our lives. For most of us, recovery means finding the right balance between what we DO and the medicine we TAKE.
It's time for doctors to start listening to us and Common Ground is that tool. Also people should have something postive to do in the waiting room instead of just sitting there, sometimes watching a TV. I've seen Common Ground in action and I think that it has a chance to revolutionize the mental health system.
As Pat Deegan says, "There are two experts in the room." The doctor and the patient. We know much more about our bodies and our experiences that people give us credit for.
I bet Common Ground actually saves mental health centers money in the long run because it reduces overusage of expensive medications. Also, people probably have much better recovery outcomes since they feel involved with the treatment decision, so long term care will be much cheaper since people aren't as sick.
Another Pat Deegan quote, "Medications can open the door to recovery, but it takes a person with courage to step through the door. That person is me." Active, involved mental health treatment is essential.
Hi Corinna. Thanks for your comment. CommonGround is all about empowering the 2 experts in the consultation room: us and our doctors. At some point, medical decisions become personal decisions. The best treatment decisions are informed and actively collaborative.
Engaging people in services is perhaps the greatest of public health concerns. That is why CommonGround is not only innovative but important. It is an online strategy that helps people determine for themselves the direction of their care.
CommonGround is a catalysts for broad, much needed changes.
We offer a range of different types of programs, from community to secure facilities. We have have worked for years developing recovery focused program cultures and ways of working with those we served. We have been stuck with implementing shared decision making, especially around medications. CommonGround is providing us with the structure and tools so these conversations can be effective, and psychiatrists, staff and people served can participate with confidence. We believe the success of this effort will further the use of shared decision making in other areas.
Thanks for your comment Steve. I agree that CommonGround can be a catalyst for change because the tool shapes communication in-vivo. Psychiatrists rarely get to leave clinics for training as the clinics depend on them to generate revenue to cover expenses. CommonGround trains them while they work, to engage collaboratively with empower service users.
Common Ground has been a wonderful addition to the Recovery Learning Community. It has brought a voice to those who did not know how to speak their mind or know that their voice should be heard during medication visits. I have personally used this software and have had a Doctor be receptive to the Common Ground Approach and the fact that now I have a Health Report that she can see, engages the flow of our often short medication visits more freely. After handing her the first report she changed a medication something I had been trying to get her to do for some time. I have found the Common Ground Approach useful and so have the other peers at the Recovery Learning Community. I want to thank Pat for creating such a software that can be of such great value for those who wish to use it.
Hey Bernadette. Thanks for your comment. It is awesome to hear that you are a personal user of CommonGround and that it helped your psychiatrist hear your concern about medicine. That's what we built it for and I'm so pleased to hear it is working for you.
I have been lucky enough to work for an agency that implemented Common Ground so I have been able to see the impact. This program helps facilitate recovery by empowering the user to communicate effectively with providers, gain access to resources and to learn to use tools and aides that help in management of syptoms and distressing experiences. It puts the info right where it belongs - in the hands of the consumer. It has been an honor to see CG in action and to see lives changed for the better because of it.
Hi Leslie. Thanks for your comment. We have a full-disclosure approach in our development of the CommonGround web application. That is, there is no "secret" information. What the doctor can see, the patient can see. Traditionally, information and decision support is unidirectional (to the doctor only). In our approach, information is fully bi-directional. This is truly empowering.
I think the thing I love most about CommonGround is the transparency that exists in the program. I know that what the Medical Practioner and other staff sees is exactly what I see. There is no 'us and them' in CommonGround. Everyone's expertise is respected.
I have also had the pleasure of learning what Common Ground is all about, working in an agency that implemented it, and then sharing it with the many peers that I have had the pleasure of working, sharing, enlightening, listening, crying and laughing with. Pat's gifts given to her are very well expressed in Common Ground. I, for one, understand it and am very grateful to have the knowledge about it; taught to me by Leslie, Pat and others. So many peers have been blessed by it, and I believe many, many more will be blessed also. You should see how excited peers become when they discover that Common Ground helps them express their wants, needs and desires in life to others and even themselves. Common Ground gives them a much needed voice!
Pat, you go girl!
Hi Dorthene. Thanks for your comment. CommonGround was built to amplify people's voice when meeting with psychiatrists about medication. When we don't feel heard in our appointments, we feel more like spectators on our care. This is wrong. We need to actively partner with our doctors to make the best treatment decisions for our recovery.
Hey Michael. Thanks for your note. We have been working for years on this. Sometimes it feels like a David & Goliath thing. To me, your vote is a much needed affirmation to continue on our path to amplify the voice of those of us with psychiatric disabilities. Thanks for your vote of confidence.
I am very excited to see that Patricia Deegan's "Common Ground" application is a finalist in this Changemakers competition. I have been familiar with Pat Deegan since first learning about her work as I was trained in the Georgia Certified Peer Specialist curriculum six years ago. I have had the opportunity over those years to see how Pat's life and work are an inspiration to countless people on an incredibly personal level. Pat's Common Ground program is a breakthrough in the way it empowers people to make plans together with our doctors, using a computer program, videos, and the services of peer support staff. The Common Ground program has potential to spread around the world to facilitate shared decision-making in psychiatry.
Hi Gareth. I am so glad that you mentioned the CommonGround videos. Without a doubt, users' favorite part of the web-application are the 3-minute videos of people telling their recovery stories. Of course, we don't use actors. Just real people telling their stories. Many people never have the opportunity to hear that recovery is real, even for those of us diagnosed with major mental disorders like schizophrenia. This is a much more hopeful message than the typical message of chronic illness and an impoverished life that all-too-often is what professionals tell people.
It's been an honor to work with you on the CommonGround program. The program has opened the eyes of so many people here at TCV. The report, being able to track individual progress and all the wonderful resources help clients to prepare goals for their recovery and realize that they can get better and have an equal say in their treatment. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be involved in this life changing program. I wish it was around when I began my own recovery. It might not have taken me as long "to step over the threshold into recovery".
Go CG!
Robin Lautner
Peer Support Specialist
Decision Support Center
Turtle Creek Valley MH/MR, Inc.
Telecare Corporation (www.telecarecorp.com) is proud to patner with Pat and all those at Pat Deegan and Assoc., to bring CommonGround to the West Coast. We are excited to bring shared decision making to California and the first set of ACT programs in the Country to use CommonGround as well as one of our in-patient Programs in Oregon. The individuals we serve deserve nothing less. Soon, shared decision making will be the norm, not the exception, for those with severe mental impairments.
Hi David. In your comment you state that shared decision making will become the norm. I certainly agree. I think many assume that those of us with psychiatric disabilities can't participate in shared decision making. However, our experience with CommonGround is that the web application acts as assistive technology, helping to organize people's thinking and concerns into a concise 1-page health report that the psychiatrist can review and respond to within the confines of the typical 15-minute medication visit. To me, CommonGround is proof that shared decision making can be a reality for everyone, even for those of us who sometimes struggle with organizing our thinking.
The shared decision making tool complements medical ethics. It enables a sound working relationship between a doctor and patient. Use of the tool is voluntary and measurable by both doctor and patient. From a layperson view, this satisfies the spirit and technicality of medical ethics as presented by the American Psychiatric Association. I wish Pat Deegan continued growth and success for herself and the betterment of public health.
Hi Christine. I agree that shared decision making in medicine, and in psychiatry in particular, is an ethical imperative. That is, when the efficacy of various treatments are equivalent or the science is inconclusive, and when the side effects are treatment are very different, then we, the patients, must have a voice and a choice. Shared decision making through CommonGround insures our voice and choice! Check out my publication on the topic: http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/60/8/1007
When I think of CommonGround I think of a quote I used to have up in my office that goes something like this:
First, no one thought it could be done.
Then it was done and people said "wow".
Years later people looked back and wondered how it could not have been done before...
Hi Monika. Great quote. Many people say that CommonGround is such an obvious and simple innovation. I think that is true. The need for voice and choice is fundamental, but often overlooked. CommonGround helps to level the playing field.
Commonground is the most tangible and powerful tool that should be our guiding model for how we shape all mental health services. It's customer focused, created to amplify the voice of the person in service, engages people in their own recovery in a respectful and consistent way and empowers providers to lay down the expert role so that people can really partner for recovery success. After having implemented this in an organization that I work for, I can see how this model of working with folks who have mental illness could be the lynch pin in achieving low cost, value based, customer focused service that integrates both mental health and physical health care. It's been a dream come true to be part of this project and to see the potential and changed lives as a result of Pat Deegan and Associates pioneering vision and work as well as the peer staff who bring this work to life on a daily basis.
Hey Darlene. Thanks for your comment. We agree that CommonGround can play a key part in the integration of mental health in physical health services. Federally qualified health centers don't have great expertise in helping people learn to manage psychiatric disorders. CommonGround can really help to fill that gap.
Congratulations to Pat and everyone at PDA for this well-deserved nomination. The Edinburg Center implemented CommonGround at our outpatient clinic about a year and a half ago and it has proven to be one of the most respectful and collaborative methods of providing services that I have encountered in my many years in the field. CommonGround provides a comprehensive framework at our clinic for communication, education, and support (including peer support) and ensures that the persons served are full partners in all decisions about their treatment. CommonGround has also emphasized wellness, instead of illness, by helping individuals to identify and use “personal medicine,” in addition to pill medicine, to promote health and positive feelings. In addition, the program is so rich in resources that we will never use all of them, but that won’t stop us from trying. Needless to say, CommonGround got my vote!
Hi Holly. Thanks so much for your comment. I think you are right. We carefully crafted CommonGround to insure emphasis on wellness and not just illness. Personal Medicine and Power Statements help psychiatrists link treatment goals to important life goals like raising our kids and working. We appreciate your vote!
Our collaboration with the common ground program has been a valuable asset in the work that we do. As an example: A new person to our program had a history of negative experiences with psychiatrists, struggled to be engaged with them and had a history of no showing for appointments, stopping her medication and ending up in the hospital. She also described being on medications that she didn't like and feeling powerless to change the situation due to having a guardian. She agreed to participate in the common ground program prior to meeting with her new psychiatrist. She was uncertain about participating when she arrived, but was able to build a relationship with the peer from the common ground program. She identified feeling "really heard" by the person and that they "really knew where she was coming from". The individual was able to communicate her wishes to her psychiatrist, with the support of the common ground program. I witnessed the psychiatrist speak openly about the person's preferences and even get the person's guardian on the phone in the session to relay the person's preferences and make a plan together to get to where the individual wanted to be. Today, the individual describes being pleased with her relationship with her psychiatrist for the first time, has successfully reduced and changed her medications to better meet her preferences and has remained out of the hospital since entering our program. I believe the common ground program was a key ingredient to these positive changes.
Hi Leigh Ann. Thanks for your post. What a great story. Makes all this hard work worth it! CommonGround does help people engage with treatment and feel respected/heard by professionals. Thanks!
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
Jon Delman,
CQI,,
Exuectuvie Director
I am an adult psychiatrist and had the privilege of working for almost 2 years using Common Ground at TCV MHMR, a busy adult outpatient community mental health center near Pittsburgh,PA, USA. Our clinic was the second in the country to use Common Ground and it was awesome! The staff at the peer-run Decision Support Center (DSC) provided support and encouragement to our clients to fully utilize this wonderful program and improve communications with their providers. As a practicing psychiatrist, I found Common Ground to be empowering for my clients, and exciting for me. The program helped us communicate more fully, with emphasis on the client's concerns and priorities more clearly articulated with the help of the staff at the DSC, the software and the client's own Power Statement and Personal Medicines. Although I have always considered myself a recovery-oriented practitioner, Common Ground taught me how to be a better listener, how to include my clients in decision making more fully and how to respect the priorities of the client. I truly believe that the decisions we arrived at together using Common Ground reflected a better approach than the usual care. My clients were more involved and felt understood to a much greater extent. Also, the program allowed the client and provider to track each person's progress over time. Clients also took more responsibility to carry out these mutual decisions. In summary, using Common Ground was a wonderful experience. I would recommend it highly for this award. And I would also hope that at some point it could be used at my current practice site which is a State Hospital.
Thanks Gail. We often hear that people get much more involved in the psychiatric consultation when CommonGround is available. It both empowers and activates people. Interestingly, I have also noticed that is helps to renew and re-activate docs and nurses too!
Comentarios
Congratulations on being selected as a finalist!
Hey folks. Those of us here at PDA feel honored to be selected as a finalist. There are many awesome entries in this competition and it feels great to be among so many visionary people who are passionate about helping make this world a better place.
I'm so glad to see that CommonGround has been chosen as a finalist! I've been working with CommonGround in a peer support center for a few months and have been able to witness some pretty amazing things. Our participants who use CommonGround are reporting feeling empowered and that it is helping them talk with their physicians better. I even saw CommonGround allow someone who did not know how to reach out for help, not even with us the peer staff, and he used the CommonGround report to do just that. He told me later that it felt good to be heard and helped him to know that there were people who cared. I wish CommonGround had been around during my early recovery!
Hey Dawn. Thanks so much for your reflections. CommonGround saves lives by helping people engage in treatment.
Dawn,
I, too, wish that CommonGround had been around during the early days of my recovery. What a powerful tool! Not only does the program work as assistive technology by giving voice to the things I sometimes have no language for, but also for the way it is combined with and supported by peer interactions. Thanks.
Common ground Is a Great Tool Used To Empower people in their decision making.
Both around lifestyle changes and medication issues.
I highly recommend using this to help change a persons perspective.
Thanks for you comment Isaac. CommonGround supports people in making lifestyle changes. In fact, we help people discover "Personal Medicine" or the things we can DO to improve our lives. For most of us, recovery means finding the right balance between what we DO and the medicine we TAKE.
It's time for doctors to start listening to us and Common Ground is that tool. Also people should have something postive to do in the waiting room instead of just sitting there, sometimes watching a TV. I've seen Common Ground in action and I think that it has a chance to revolutionize the mental health system.
As Pat Deegan says, "There are two experts in the room." The doctor and the patient. We know much more about our bodies and our experiences that people give us credit for.
I bet Common Ground actually saves mental health centers money in the long run because it reduces overusage of expensive medications. Also, people probably have much better recovery outcomes since they feel involved with the treatment decision, so long term care will be much cheaper since people aren't as sick.
Another Pat Deegan quote, "Medications can open the door to recovery, but it takes a person with courage to step through the door. That person is me." Active, involved mental health treatment is essential.
Hi Corinna. Thanks for your comment. CommonGround is all about empowering the 2 experts in the consultation room: us and our doctors. At some point, medical decisions become personal decisions. The best treatment decisions are informed and actively collaborative.
Engaging people in services is perhaps the greatest of public health concerns. That is why CommonGround is not only innovative but important. It is an online strategy that helps people determine for themselves the direction of their care.
CommonGround is a catalysts for broad, much needed changes.
We offer a range of different types of programs, from community to secure facilities. We have have worked for years developing recovery focused program cultures and ways of working with those we served. We have been stuck with implementing shared decision making, especially around medications. CommonGround is providing us with the structure and tools so these conversations can be effective, and psychiatrists, staff and people served can participate with confidence. We believe the success of this effort will further the use of shared decision making in other areas.
Thanks for your comment Steve. I agree that CommonGround can be a catalyst for change because the tool shapes communication in-vivo. Psychiatrists rarely get to leave clinics for training as the clinics depend on them to generate revenue to cover expenses. CommonGround trains them while they work, to engage collaboratively with empower service users.
Common Ground has been a wonderful addition to the Recovery Learning Community. It has brought a voice to those who did not know how to speak their mind or know that their voice should be heard during medication visits. I have personally used this software and have had a Doctor be receptive to the Common Ground Approach and the fact that now I have a Health Report that she can see, engages the flow of our often short medication visits more freely. After handing her the first report she changed a medication something I had been trying to get her to do for some time. I have found the Common Ground Approach useful and so have the other peers at the Recovery Learning Community. I want to thank Pat for creating such a software that can be of such great value for those who wish to use it.
Hey Bernadette. Thanks for your comment. It is awesome to hear that you are a personal user of CommonGround and that it helped your psychiatrist hear your concern about medicine. That's what we built it for and I'm so pleased to hear it is working for you.
I have been lucky enough to work for an agency that implemented Common Ground so I have been able to see the impact. This program helps facilitate recovery by empowering the user to communicate effectively with providers, gain access to resources and to learn to use tools and aides that help in management of syptoms and distressing experiences. It puts the info right where it belongs - in the hands of the consumer. It has been an honor to see CG in action and to see lives changed for the better because of it.
Hi Leslie. Thanks for your comment. We have a full-disclosure approach in our development of the CommonGround web application. That is, there is no "secret" information. What the doctor can see, the patient can see. Traditionally, information and decision support is unidirectional (to the doctor only). In our approach, information is fully bi-directional. This is truly empowering.
I think the thing I love most about CommonGround is the transparency that exists in the program. I know that what the Medical Practioner and other staff sees is exactly what I see. There is no 'us and them' in CommonGround. Everyone's expertise is respected.
I have also had the pleasure of learning what Common Ground is all about, working in an agency that implemented it, and then sharing it with the many peers that I have had the pleasure of working, sharing, enlightening, listening, crying and laughing with. Pat's gifts given to her are very well expressed in Common Ground. I, for one, understand it and am very grateful to have the knowledge about it; taught to me by Leslie, Pat and others. So many peers have been blessed by it, and I believe many, many more will be blessed also. You should see how excited peers become when they discover that Common Ground helps them express their wants, needs and desires in life to others and even themselves. Common Ground gives them a much needed voice!
Pat, you go girl!
Hi Dorthene. Thanks for your comment. CommonGround was built to amplify people's voice when meeting with psychiatrists about medication. When we don't feel heard in our appointments, we feel more like spectators on our care. This is wrong. We need to actively partner with our doctors to make the best treatment decisions for our recovery.
Congratulations on being a finalist Pat!
Hey Michael. Thanks for your note. We have been working for years on this. Sometimes it feels like a David & Goliath thing. To me, your vote is a much needed affirmation to continue on our path to amplify the voice of those of us with psychiatric disabilities. Thanks for your vote of confidence.
I am very excited to see that Patricia Deegan's "Common Ground" application is a finalist in this Changemakers competition. I have been familiar with Pat Deegan since first learning about her work as I was trained in the Georgia Certified Peer Specialist curriculum six years ago. I have had the opportunity over those years to see how Pat's life and work are an inspiration to countless people on an incredibly personal level. Pat's Common Ground program is a breakthrough in the way it empowers people to make plans together with our doctors, using a computer program, videos, and the services of peer support staff. The Common Ground program has potential to spread around the world to facilitate shared decision-making in psychiatry.
Hi Gareth. I am so glad that you mentioned the CommonGround videos. Without a doubt, users' favorite part of the web-application are the 3-minute videos of people telling their recovery stories. Of course, we don't use actors. Just real people telling their stories. Many people never have the opportunity to hear that recovery is real, even for those of us diagnosed with major mental disorders like schizophrenia. This is a much more hopeful message than the typical message of chronic illness and an impoverished life that all-too-often is what professionals tell people.
Pat,
It's been an honor to work with you on the CommonGround program. The program has opened the eyes of so many people here at TCV. The report, being able to track individual progress and all the wonderful resources help clients to prepare goals for their recovery and realize that they can get better and have an equal say in their treatment. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be involved in this life changing program. I wish it was around when I began my own recovery. It might not have taken me as long "to step over the threshold into recovery".
Go CG!
Robin Lautner
Peer Support Specialist
Decision Support Center
Turtle Creek Valley MH/MR, Inc.
Telecare Corporation (www.telecarecorp.com) is proud to patner with Pat and all those at Pat Deegan and Assoc., to bring CommonGround to the West Coast. We are excited to bring shared decision making to California and the first set of ACT programs in the Country to use CommonGround as well as one of our in-patient Programs in Oregon. The individuals we serve deserve nothing less. Soon, shared decision making will be the norm, not the exception, for those with severe mental impairments.
Hi David. In your comment you state that shared decision making will become the norm. I certainly agree. I think many assume that those of us with psychiatric disabilities can't participate in shared decision making. However, our experience with CommonGround is that the web application acts as assistive technology, helping to organize people's thinking and concerns into a concise 1-page health report that the psychiatrist can review and respond to within the confines of the typical 15-minute medication visit. To me, CommonGround is proof that shared decision making can be a reality for everyone, even for those of us who sometimes struggle with organizing our thinking.
The shared decision making tool complements medical ethics. It enables a sound working relationship between a doctor and patient. Use of the tool is voluntary and measurable by both doctor and patient. From a layperson view, this satisfies the spirit and technicality of medical ethics as presented by the American Psychiatric Association. I wish Pat Deegan continued growth and success for herself and the betterment of public health.
Hi Christine. I agree that shared decision making in medicine, and in psychiatry in particular, is an ethical imperative. That is, when the efficacy of various treatments are equivalent or the science is inconclusive, and when the side effects are treatment are very different, then we, the patients, must have a voice and a choice. Shared decision making through CommonGround insures our voice and choice! Check out my publication on the topic: http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/60/8/1007
When I think of CommonGround I think of a quote I used to have up in my office that goes something like this:
First, no one thought it could be done.
Then it was done and people said "wow".
Years later people looked back and wondered how it could not have been done before...
Best of luck!
Monika
Hi Monika. Great quote. Many people say that CommonGround is such an obvious and simple innovation. I think that is true. The need for voice and choice is fundamental, but often overlooked. CommonGround helps to level the playing field.
Commonground is the most tangible and powerful tool that should be our guiding model for how we shape all mental health services. It's customer focused, created to amplify the voice of the person in service, engages people in their own recovery in a respectful and consistent way and empowers providers to lay down the expert role so that people can really partner for recovery success. After having implemented this in an organization that I work for, I can see how this model of working with folks who have mental illness could be the lynch pin in achieving low cost, value based, customer focused service that integrates both mental health and physical health care. It's been a dream come true to be part of this project and to see the potential and changed lives as a result of Pat Deegan and Associates pioneering vision and work as well as the peer staff who bring this work to life on a daily basis.
Hey Darlene. Thanks for your comment. We agree that CommonGround can play a key part in the integration of mental health in physical health services. Federally qualified health centers don't have great expertise in helping people learn to manage psychiatric disorders. CommonGround can really help to fill that gap.
Congratulations to Pat and everyone at PDA for this well-deserved nomination. The Edinburg Center implemented CommonGround at our outpatient clinic about a year and a half ago and it has proven to be one of the most respectful and collaborative methods of providing services that I have encountered in my many years in the field. CommonGround provides a comprehensive framework at our clinic for communication, education, and support (including peer support) and ensures that the persons served are full partners in all decisions about their treatment. CommonGround has also emphasized wellness, instead of illness, by helping individuals to identify and use “personal medicine,” in addition to pill medicine, to promote health and positive feelings. In addition, the program is so rich in resources that we will never use all of them, but that won’t stop us from trying. Needless to say, CommonGround got my vote!
Hi Holly. Thanks so much for your comment. I think you are right. We carefully crafted CommonGround to insure emphasis on wellness and not just illness. Personal Medicine and Power Statements help psychiatrists link treatment goals to important life goals like raising our kids and working. We appreciate your vote!
Our collaboration with the common ground program has been a valuable asset in the work that we do. As an example: A new person to our program had a history of negative experiences with psychiatrists, struggled to be engaged with them and had a history of no showing for appointments, stopping her medication and ending up in the hospital. She also described being on medications that she didn't like and feeling powerless to change the situation due to having a guardian. She agreed to participate in the common ground program prior to meeting with her new psychiatrist. She was uncertain about participating when she arrived, but was able to build a relationship with the peer from the common ground program. She identified feeling "really heard" by the person and that they "really knew where she was coming from". The individual was able to communicate her wishes to her psychiatrist, with the support of the common ground program. I witnessed the psychiatrist speak openly about the person's preferences and even get the person's guardian on the phone in the session to relay the person's preferences and make a plan together to get to where the individual wanted to be. Today, the individual describes being pleased with her relationship with her psychiatrist for the first time, has successfully reduced and changed her medications to better meet her preferences and has remained out of the hospital since entering our program. I believe the common ground program was a key ingredient to these positive changes.
Hi Leigh Ann. Thanks for your post. What a great story. Makes all this hard work worth it! CommonGround does help people engage with treatment and feel respected/heard by professionals. Thanks!
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
Jon Delman,
CQI,,
Exuectuvie Director
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
Jon Delman,
CQI,,
Exuectuvie Director
At Consumer Quality Initiatives, a community research and evaluation org. in Mass. We helped to assess consumer experiences of using CG in the clinics. Clients when introduced to it by a peer liked using the software and saw potential for the power statement in particluar to help them discuss meds wiht their psychiatrists.
I highly encourage providers of all types to look into CG, you probably have not seen anything like it before,
Jon Delman,
CQI,,
Exuectuvie Director
Thanks John. The Power Statement is proving to be a powerful self-advocacy tool that helps the psychiatrist get on board with our recovery goals.
I am an adult psychiatrist and had the privilege of working for almost 2 years using Common Ground at TCV MHMR, a busy adult outpatient community mental health center near Pittsburgh,PA, USA. Our clinic was the second in the country to use Common Ground and it was awesome! The staff at the peer-run Decision Support Center (DSC) provided support and encouragement to our clients to fully utilize this wonderful program and improve communications with their providers. As a practicing psychiatrist, I found Common Ground to be empowering for my clients, and exciting for me. The program helped us communicate more fully, with emphasis on the client's concerns and priorities more clearly articulated with the help of the staff at the DSC, the software and the client's own Power Statement and Personal Medicines. Although I have always considered myself a recovery-oriented practitioner, Common Ground taught me how to be a better listener, how to include my clients in decision making more fully and how to respect the priorities of the client. I truly believe that the decisions we arrived at together using Common Ground reflected a better approach than the usual care. My clients were more involved and felt understood to a much greater extent. Also, the program allowed the client and provider to track each person's progress over time. Clients also took more responsibility to carry out these mutual decisions. In summary, using Common Ground was a wonderful experience. I would recommend it highly for this award. And I would also hope that at some point it could be used at my current practice site which is a State Hospital.
Thanks Gail. We often hear that people get much more involved in the psychiatric consultation when CommonGround is available. It both empowers and activates people. Interestingly, I have also noticed that is helps to renew and re-activate docs and nurses too!
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