COGWORLD
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In Wisconsin we have systems of long-term support that sometimes blossom in ways that make room for people with disabilities to be engaged, productive, connected, and successful. When these opportunities open, it is not by random accident. It happens when people who rely on support have the investment of others who care about them to capably assist in propelling the person’s vision of what could be. Successfully assisting in the person’s pursuit of such a vision requires skills that may seem, on their face, contradictory. On the one hand, successful assistance can make opportunity bloom when the person relying on the assistance has confidence that the supporting person shares that vision and engages in partnership with the person to achieve it. On the other hand, successful assistance, when that assistance includes resources from systems of long-term support, requires savvy management of the opportunities that can be plucked from a sometimes unyielding system. John O’Brien is a close observer of the systems of long term support in Wisconsin that have opened opportunities for people with disabilities to engage in life, relationships, and community. In a paper commissioned by the Developmental Disabilities Network, O’Brien notes with alarm that a convergence of trends threatens to reduce the delivery of long term care services to a mechanistic series of transactions that put a forceful squeeze on the kind of supportive relationships that allow individuals to flourish and connect. O’Brien describes the resulting reality as “cogworld” and offers a cautionary view of a dystopian system that reduces a person to a defined set of needs and limits the boundaries of support to the remedy of functional deficits. You may download your copy of O’Brien’s paper, Surviving Cogworld? Supporting People with Developmental Disabilities in a Mechanistic System.
This May, the Developmental Disabilities Network will host exploratory sessions led by O’Brien in which he will define “cogworld” and guide the audience in a thoughtful, productive, and ultimately hopeful discussion of strategies to balance the bureaucratic inevitability of “cogworld” with the human necessity of shaping support in terms of relationship and capacity development.
More information on O’Brien’s COGWORLD sessions will appear here soon at the DDN website.
This May, the Developmental Disabilities Network will host exploratory sessions led by O’Brien in which he will define “cogworld” and guide the audience in a thoughtful, productive, and ultimately hopeful discussion of strategies to balance the bureaucratic inevitability of “cogworld” with the human necessity of shaping support in terms of relationship and capacity development.
More information on O’Brien’s COGWORLD sessions will appear here soon at the DDN website.
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John O’Brien learns about building more just and inclusive communities from people with disabilities, their families, and their allies. He uses what he learns to advise people with disabilities and their families, advocacy groups, service providers, and governments and to spread the news among people interested in change by writing and through workshops. He works in partnership with Connie Lyle O’Brien and a group of friends from 16 countries. He is a Fellow of the Centre for Welfare Reform (UK) and is affiliated with the Center on Human Policy, Law & Disability, Syracuse University (US), inControl Partnerships (UK), and the Marsha Forest Centre: (Canada).
For more information on his books, visit http://www.inclusion.com/jobrien.html ; to download some of his papers, visit http://thechp.syr.edu/rsapublications/ and http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/authors/john-obrien/
What We Hold Dear
Dane County has become a leader in supports to people with developmental disabilities and their families through relationships and investments threatened by Cogworld. Read what people with developmental disabilities, family members and providers say about what has been achieved and how.
Dane County has become a leader in supports to people with developmental disabilities and their families through relationships and investments threatened by Cogworld. Read what people with developmental disabilities, family members and providers say about what has been achieved and how.
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Additional documents:
Here are larger images of the charts on page 13 of Cogworld" by John O'Brien
Cogworld isn’t a new thing.
Here are larger images of the charts on page 13 of Cogworld" by John O'Brien
Cogworld isn’t a new thing.
- In America, the art of doctoring is dying from The Washington Post
- Henry Mintzberg, How not to fix health care.
- Avedis Donabedian, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, was a towering figure in the field of quality measurement. He developed what is known as Donabedian’s triad, which states that quality can be measured by looking at outcomes (how the subjects fared), processes (what was done) and structures (how the work was organized). In 2000, shortly before he died, he was asked about his view of quality. What this hard-nosed scientist answered is shocking at first, then somehow seems obvious. “The secret of quality is love,” he said.
- Ales Fox: create spaces in our public services for the emotions which make the most difference: empathy, compassion, love.
- Charles Leadbeater, BBC Radio - The Whirlpool Economy
- People in the UK consider how to Heal Integrity Gaps created when attention to abstract rules gets in the way of real people’s freedom.
- Steve Findlayson from Scotland suggests that instead of “managing risk” we have conversations about what we are worried about and what we might do to worry less.
- Assistance with Integrity explores ‘effective interdependence” as the foundation for integrity and accountability in services.
- Hillary Cottam, Social Services are broken. How we can fix them.
- Yves Morieux, How too many rules at work keep you from getting things done.
- In 1835, Alexis de Toqueville wrote about a form of oppression that could grow in a democracy from the benign take over of everyday life.
If you have an example of Cogworld showing up in your world, send it to admin@ddnetworkinc.org. We’ll post some of the examples we receive here.
Peter Leidy - "It's a Cogworld"
It's a Cogworld from dna on Vimeo.