Implementing Let's get real

On this page:

• Let's get real enablers
• Planning Let's get real implementation
• Supporting resources
• Workshops
• Ideas to help you implement Let's get real

Let's get real enablers

Te Pou has developed five enablers to support organisations and mental health and addiction services to implement Let’s get real. The Let's get real roadmap helps you navigate the different resources and plan how to use them in your organisation. The enablers are available for download, or you can request a CD of the enablers by emailing letsgetreal@tepou.co.nz.

The Let's get real overview is recommended reading for everyone. It describes all the enablers in detail and how they support implementation of Let's get real.

The Guide for Managers and Leaders provides guidance on how the enablers support implementation of Let’s get real in organisations. 

The Team Planning Tool is to assist services to use and include Let’s get real in service planning, and to develop a team profile and a workforce plan to up-skill team members in the seven Real Skills.

In recognition of the variation in human resources capacity amongst organisations the Human Resources Tool has two aspects:

• a high level guide which assists organisations to understand Let’s get real, and to identify ways of introducing Let’s get real into existing systems and processes
• a comprehensive tool with templates that can be downloaded. 

Self-directed learning modules can also be used for group training sessions. The learning modules cover Getting Started; Values and Attitudes; and essential, practitioner and leader modules for each of the seven Real Skills:

• Working with Service Users
• Working with Maori
• Working with Families/Whanau
• Working within Communities
• Challenging Stigma and Discrimination
• Law, Policy and Practice
• Professional and Personal Development

The two-fold purpose of the Education Tool is to develop a:

• process to incorporate Let’s get real into existing review processes
• process or guideline for integrating Let’s get real into curricula.

In addition, the Education Tool supports professional bodies to audit education and training programmes, and other courses provided to students or trainees in their particular profession.

Planning Let's get real implementation

A project planner is available to assist with identifying how you will use Let’s get real and the enablers in your organisation. This can be adapted for your own use and purposes.

Supporting resources

In addition to the Let’s get real enablers, resources have been developed to assist understanding Let’s get real, its relationship to other policies, initiatives or workforce needs. We are available to work with your organisation to help understand how Let's get real may assist you to meet service priorities.

Quick reference guide

The Let's get real quick reference guide provides quick and easy access to the values, attitudes and seven Real Skills.

Position papers

A series of position papers is being developed by Te Pou to assist services understand the relationship of Let’s get real to other initiatives. These include:

• Let’s get real and the Health and Disability Services Standards
• Using Let’s get real to support the co-existing problems project
• Values-based practice
• Let’s get real and peer support – yet to be released.

Principles for Engagement

Principles for Engagement is a resource designed to support Let’s get real Real Skills at essential level.

This resource draws from extensive consultation with New Zealand practitioners, interviewed for the suite of talking therapies guides for different population groups. Key principles for engagement to emerge from this consultation are summarised to assist people entering the mental health and/or addiction workforce to form the rapport and connection required to demonstrate the Let’s get real Real Skills at essential level. This will also be a useful support document for undergraduate curricula.

Workshops

Managers and leaders workshops

The application of Let’s get real needs to be tailored to suit each organisation. To plan how this will occur Te Pou can provide a managers and leaders workshop for the senior management team. This utilises the Let’s get real Guide for Managers and Leaders to identify and plan how Let’s get real can be used.

In 2010 and 2011 Te Pou delivered this workshop with a number of district health boards, individual non-government organisations (NGOs) as well as clusters of NGO providers. Of these participants 90 per cent said that they would recommend the workshop to others.

Values and attitudes workshops

Let’s get real values and attitudes create a firm foundation for effective mental health and addiction services. They support the workforce to recognise and understand the impact that values and attitudes can have on the experiences of service users and their families and whanau.

Values-based practice has become increasingly used in the mental health and addiction sector over the last decade. It recognises that values are both pervasive and powerful, and influence service delivery at all levels. Te Pou has prepared a position paper on values-based practice which provides information about what it is, its benefits, and how Let's get real promotes and supports robust values-based practice in organisations.

The Let’s get real framework expresses values and attitudes through the seven Real Skills. To support implementation of the framework for frontline staff, Te Pou designed the Let’s get real values and attitudes workshop. This enjoyable workshop enables workshop participants to actively reflect on their own values and attitudes and the impact this can sometimes have on their role and practice and the people they work with.

Te Pou delivered the first workshop in October 2010 with resounding success from workshop participants and to date over 250 personnel from a range of frontline occupations across mental health and addiction services have attended the workshops. Ninety per cent of participants said that they would recommend the workshop to others.

Ideas to help you implement Let’s get real

Taking a service user centred approach to developing the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes is at the heart of what Let’s get real is all about. Let’s get real is primarily a quality improvement tool, and Te Pou has been inspired by many organisations and services embracing the framework and being creative in how this is reflected in their day to day work.

District health boards

In district health board (DHB) services we have seen:

• Let’s get real being included in district annual plans
• senior management teams using the Guide for Managers and Leaders to undertake an organisational snapshot to inform the development of a Let’s get real implementation plan  
• human resource processes integrating the values, attitudes and seven Real Skills into all human resource processes such as job descriptions, recruitment, orientation and performance management
• the learning modules being made available on DHB intranets to improve mental health knowledge and skills for the entire workforce
• Let’s get real being used as a training gap analysis tool to review internal training and development  programmes by identifying which of the seven Real Skills performance indicators are reflected in programmes being delivered
• professional development portfolios including the seven Real Skills.

Non-government organisations

In non-government organisation (NGO) services we have seen:

• Let’s get real being used as a quality improvement tool to review business and strategic plans to strengthen stakeholder engagement of service user, Maori, families/whanau and communities
• human resource processes integrating the values, attitudes and seven Real Skills for all roles across the governance board and operations of the organisation  
• Let’s get real having a key role in orientation, position descriptions and performance management
• existing organisational competency frameworks being reviewed against Let’s get real and identification of areas to include aspects of the seven Real Skills.

Education providers

In education providers, we have seen:

• values and attitudes and some of the seven Real Skills learning modules used within the classroom setting
• orientation at undergraduate nursing programmes including Let’s get real and Let's get real being reinforced by aligning the seven Real Skills to different parts of the curricula
• leadership and management training using components of Let’s get real as topics for assignments
• course curricula reviewed against the performance indicators of Let’s get real.