MCH LEND Leadership Competencies and My Reflections

Maternal and Child Health: Leadership Education in Neuro-developmental and Related Disabilities - MCH LEND -  has been one of the most wonderful opportunities that I have had in my professional career.  The networking with faculty, friends of LEND and trainees is truly awesome for professionals in Maternal and Child Health in Hawai`i.   I have just completed my final semester in LEND. Dr. Louise Iwaishi and my mentor, Leolinda Parlin kindly agreed for me to complete the program in 2 years instead of the required, one. They swore to track me down if I did not return, but that was not a problem - I was pestering them to find more ways I could be involved.  I am so pleased to have been invited to join them as a faculty member for Fall 2010 and am grateful that the DOE agrees that my participation is worthwhile to them as well as to LEND.


I used the MCH LEND competencies (listed below) to frame my reflections on my professional growth, my DOE community, the families I serve and my work in policy and advocacy.   Here are some of the thoughts I had while reflecting on these areas.

I continue to seek balance in body - mind - spirit.  I find this essential to my personal and professional well being.  

Physical craves to experience strength, endurance, vigor, fun, play and wellness. Spiritual embraces the interconnectedness of all life and seeks relationship. Mind wants challenge, learning, dissonance, problem solving, creativity and seeks to be engaged. In my professional life - the balance is reflected by -  enthusiasm, endurance and “being bamboo”, meaning flexibility rooted in strength.

Know that during the life cycle of a individual and also of an organization there are times of risky behavior and times when you can capture a moment and make lasting change. It is believing in this cycle for yourself, your organization and when helping others - the finding of those unique moments - that is crucial to promoting health and wellness of the individual, of others or of an organization.  

It is  in knowing that life’s events -the glorious and the  tragic - occur for each of us with such ferocity, that we are certain that we are alone and unique in our experience.  But in the truth of our shared humanity,  our story has played out countless times in countless other lives.  It is by embracing this common thread that we are most able to support, to nurture and to love each other.

I believe that we often deceive ourselves about ourselves.  

Reflections on my DOE community and the families I serve - 

Conscious communication is relaying your message in a way it can be received and responded to by your intended audience and in the way you are able to listen, receive and respond in turn.  It is a give and take of respect, not necessarily agreement, but of mutual appreciation and right to individual differences.

Some years ago, my desire was to be the “human face” of Special Education Administration. It is easier to vilify  the efforts of a faceless bureaucracy.

Today my desire is to make family involvement more than just a phrase and a compliance measure.

Sometimes you have to agree to disagree.

Negotiation and conflict resolution are beyond skills;  they are essential competencies for working with families and professionals. They are also not one and the same.

Relationship is the key to everything.

Cultural Competency is a life- long process. It is not a destination reached once, but a voyage of self discovery that grows in depth and complexity

Cultural competency works for families, organizations, agencies, professions, individuals and systems.

When you are open to it, cultural competency challenges your assumptions and attacks your personal bias.

Every aspect of a person’s life experience is affected by the lens of culture.

Working within systems requires the ability to see both the forest and the veins on the leaf. The interaction of the micro and the macro along with the understanding of how the day to day affects the decade to decade

“The successful MCH leader thinks systemically about the complexity of policy, practice, and research challenges. Personality characteristics and temperament that may aid in this competency include passion, persistence, self-motivation, optimism, flexibility, creativity, charisma, humility, and patience”

To become a change agent at the systems level I need to:

Broaden my network

Become more knowledgeable of MCH systems of funding

Gain experiences by joining

Learn the issues and know the players

Refine a vision

Keep learning and being open

Say yes

Be willing to fail

Be brave and take a stand

My advocacy now is focused on inclusive practices and interventions for all learners.

I. Self

1. MCH Knowledge Base / Context
2. Self Reflection
3. Ethics and Professionalism
4. Critical Thinking

II. Others

1. Communication
2. Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
3. Cultural Competency
4. Family Centered Care
5. Developing others through Teaching and Mentoring
6. Interdisciplinary Team Building

III. Wider Community

1. Working with Communities and Systems
2. Policy and Advocacy

Excellent website for expanded understanding of the competencies with resources, definitions, assignments and means to both self assess and assess others in the essential competencies for professionals in the field.
http://leadership.mchtraining.net/

Hawaii Child Welfare Continuous Quality Improvement Project

Today was the first day of my week as a reviewer for this project.   This project is funded by a federal grant to UH to monitor statewide for quality in Child Welfare Services.    I am so pleased to have the time to offer to this project.  It has already been very eye opening to get a better understanding of the outcomes that CWS is required to meet.  It is disturbing to find that some of their expectations for quality outcomes go in opposition to some DOE requirements.  It appears that neither agency is aware of how they are directly in conflict and maybe adding to the stress on children and families.

1. Maintaining the child in their neighborhood home school is understandably desired.  However, there is no provision or room for extenuating circumstance for when that child is placed in foster care out of the geographic location of the home school.  The DOE does not have a provision or means to address this unless we maneuver the transportation system (which has been done in the past).  Agency cooperation to address this is needed.
2. Similarly, CWS desire is to keep a high school student playing the same sports that he/she was participating in before being moved to foster care.  If the child moves schools however,  this is against the MIL rules.   Students may not move schools and play the same sports in the same school year.  This is to prevent coaches and families from "shopping" schools but does not work to support the child in foster care.
3. CWS has a requirement for children to be "assessed" (not defined specifically) when intake to foster care.  While understandably, it makes sense to assess a child for their emotional/behavioral wellness, and possibly other areas of functioning as well,  the DOE becomes the agency expected to conduct these assessments.  While the DOE is the agency suited (and required) to do assessments, unless there is a suspicion of a disability and data collected on pre-referral interventions,  an assessment would not be considered appropriate under the DOE system.

All of these issues could be solved through inter-agency cooperation and discussion.  But unless they are addressed at the system level they will continue to be road blocks to successful outcomes for children in the CWS system.  Each agency feels the other is being hard-nosed and inflexible - but each is simply trying to maintain the validity to their own requirements. Lets talk these and other barriers out and see where simple solutions lie to support families in our community.

60 Day Timeline On-Line Assessment / PACRIM

North Central Regional Resource Center (support for OSEP Targets for the North Central States) is in the process of developing an online training and assessment of the legal requirements for meeting the IDEA 60 day evaluation timeline.  Their target is teachers and other DOE staff who need to understand the law to reach compliance on this SPP item.   They will be contacting us when they have completed this so we can see if this is something we want to use for our schools.   Maui District's ability to be compliant to the 60 day timeline.

Recommended Reading

Being on professional development leave has afforded me the luxury of time with which  to read! I have enjoyed several books that I would highly recommend for those interested in cultural competency and leadership.

"The Spirit Catches you and You Fall Down:  A Hmong child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures",  by Anne Fadiman
is the winner of the National Book Critics Award for Non-Fiction.  Excellent book, engages your interest from the first page and holds you rapt til the finish.  The author is brilliant at presenting a highly sensitive topic objectively and with empathy for both the family and the medicals teams.   Highly recommended for anyone who works with families in most any capacity.
I was especially rewarded to read the culminating thoughts on page 261 in which Dr. Kleinman discusses ending the use of the term "non-compliant" when working with families who have chosen not to follow professional recommendations.  He is quoted as saying, " ...get rid of the term 'compliance'.  It's a lousy term. It implies moral hegemony.  You don't want a command from a general, you want a colloquy." I wrote about my feelings on the use of this term in my blog entry "Family Involvement: Ideas to make it real" .

"Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard" - by Chip and Dan Heath
This book is quick reading and gets you excited.   Many examples from a variety of fields gives you the means to see how their recommendations can apply to you both in your personal life and professional fields.  Geared for big system change; their focus on needing to move people at their emotional level is a welcome change from most leadership texts.    Thanks to the AMCHP conference for providing a copy to all attendees.  This one I will re-read when next working to make big system change.

"Little Bee" by Chris Cleave  -  Deeply moving.  Tough to take and tough to put down. Little Bee tells a culture clash story of epic proportions.  He writes from the view of both female protagonists expertly in clipped cutting prose.  Another essential reading for anyone wanting to expand their view of culture.

"Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes" by Tamim Ansary    This is a must read for every American.  What we don't know and therefore don't understand about Islam is stunning.  While this is not specifically a book regarding working with families from differing cultures, it broadens your perspective and  lets you see where your prejudices may lie.

"Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box" by the Arbinger Institute -  This surprising  and exciting  book was recommended in an AMCHP session  by one of the speakers who eloquently shared about her own journey of forgiveness. I immediately related to the concept of seeing everyone we come in contact with in all circumstances as a person with hopes, dreams, issues, concerns, plans etc.  rather than as an obstacle, an irritant, a "thing" to objectify.  This "out f the box" thinking is the way I was raised by my amazing mother, whom everyone respects and loves.  In no circumstance I can ever recall,  did she see anyone as anything less that human deserving of respect.  She always taught us that people were more important than things and that quality  relationships and forgiveness was the foundation of everything.  I wish I could say that I was a successful at living and relating to everyone as my mother has been;  I have not - but I "get it" and can immediately increase my accountability at work, at home and in my community.

I am curious and intrigued about how to bring this concept into the  workplace.  For myself personally, I can see many ways to improve my supervision skills by owning accountability and staying out of the box. How to bring this to my co=workers will take some thought and planning.  More to come on this.

If you have any other books that you would recommend, please comment.