/ Training Kit :Personalised Social Support / 2012

Activity: Social diagnosis (Disc/Sim)

Time required: 1 hour

Learning objectives:To help distinguish the helpful things to Do and the harmful things to NOT DO during a social diagnosis meeting.

Materials: handout listing the suggestions below

Method:

  1. The trainer explains that a social diagnosis enables us to take an accurate snapshot of a person’s life situation to determine overall IF and WHERE the support is most needed. There are common mistakes made when people are doing a social diagnosis that we will list below and things that we recommend doing. Next to each statement, please circle T (TRUE) or F (FALSE) based on whether you agree or disagree with the statement.

T / FSocial diagnosis focus on understanding the overall situation of a person. (TRUE)

T / FSocial diagnosis focuses on understanding the most difficult experience a person is having right now. (FALSE)

T / FSocial diagnosis focuses on identifying what are a person’s needs. (FALSE)

T / FSocial diagnosis focuses on identifying the person’s life satisfaction, the social roles they have and the daily activities they do or do not do. (TRUE)

T / FSocial diagnosis focuses on evaluating a person’s ability to meet the challenges in their life and be self-reliant. (TRUE)

T / FSocial diagnosis always leads to a personal project. (FALSE)

T / FSocial diagnosis helps you decide whether you need to give further support to someone or if information may be enough. (TRUE)

T / FSocial diagnosis are brief and short, they should get brief information on all aspects of a person’s life. (TRUE)

T / FSocial diagnosis should be detailed and long, to deeply understand the most difficult parts of a person’s life. (FALSE)

T / FSocial diagnosis also considers the opinions of other professionals and other sources of information to help complete the picture of the person’s situation. (TRUE)

T / FAt the end of the social diagnosis, the social facilitator highlights the persons life priorities. (TRUE)

T / FAt the end of the social diagnosis, the social facilitator tries his best to meet the needs of the person. (FALSE)

  1. The trainer reveals the correct answers.
  2. The trainer then invites 2 persons to volunteer to role play the following situation in front of the group. One person is going to be the social facilitator doing a social diagnosis interview and the other person will role play coming to get support. The person role-playing the social facilitator should remember all of the TRUE statements above to use in the role play and avoid all the FALSE statements above. The social facilitator can also choose to use the DCP

Social facilitator role plays: trying best to do an accurate, effective social diagnosis, can have 10 minutes to do so.

Person seeking support role plays: you are a 16 year old young woman with a mobility disability who has a twin sister who is non-disabled. She has been going to school since you were children, but you had difficulty walking to school so you were not able to go. As a result you have been mostly at home for the past few years, helping your mother. Your relationship with your twin sister is good, she helps take you out in your wheelchair when she can, but you are feeling very jealous of her because she has many more friends and because the boys in the neighborhood talk to her when you go out together but they ignore you. You feel bad for feeling jealous and sad that you are so invisible compared to her, though you are twins. You want to have more friends, have opportunities to learn and be a student. You also would like to learn to play and instrument like your sister, who plays the drums. You have seen another girl with a disability in the market one day but you did not talk to her, you would love to see this girl again to talk to her and see about her experiences, maybe she would be a good friend to you. You are close to your mother, but she is over-protective of you and does not let you go out, unless you go out with your sister. You think you can go out alone in your wheelchair and that strangers can help you if you have difficulties, but your mother is afraid to let this happen. [make sure to reveal these things about yourself only if the social facilitator asks you about your family, your desires, your life]. Otherwise give unrelated answers such as: wanting new clothes, wanting your hair done so it is pretty, wanting more jewelry, wanting to go to visit the capital city, etc.

  1. After the role-play, the group will give feedback on what was done well during the role-play and what could have been done better. The trainer then summarizes and concludes.

Shirin Kiani and Annie Lafrenière (Technical Resources Division)Page 1