“We were talking about cutting this person loose. And then we’re celebrating a sobriety anniversary two years later. And I think it’s because that case manager got some useful feedback that she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”
- Ric Kruszynski on the benefit of real-time, field-based supervision of service team members.
Ric Kruszynski MSSA, LISW, LICDC, of the Ohio SAMI CCOE
Kruszynski is a 1993 graduate of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
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July 29, 2008
HOW 20 MINUTES CAN CHANGE A LIFE
Ohio SAMI CCOE emphasizes need for focused clinical supervision, provides useful methods (Part 1)
—by Matthew K. Weiland and Paul M. Kubek
Cleveland, OH--In the Fall 2007 issue of our SAMI Matters newsletter, we began an ongoing discussion about the organizational structure—known as the General Organizational Index (GOI)—of Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) services. This discussion is an effort to help service providers better understand the seamless relationship between the organizational characteristics and the treatment characterstics of the IDDT fidelity scale and the scale's vital role in assisting consumer recovery.
We continue the discussion with an audio eConsult series focusing on supervision, which the consultants and trainers of the Ohio SAMI CCOE have identified as among the most important components of the fidelity scale’s GOI. In subsequent installments of this series, we’ll look at the importance of clinical supervision in behavioral healthcare and some practical, easily-implemented steps to begin enhancing the supervision of your clinical team.
This story has been selected as the centerpiece for this Ohio SAMI CCOE audio eConsult series on clinical supervision because it encapsulates and epitomizes much of the material covered in future installments. It is a point of reference that serves as an echoing reinforcement of how crucial the role of real-time clinical supervision can be.
CLINICIANS BENEFIT FROM IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK IN THE COMMUNITY
One of the hallmarks of effective clinical supervision is real-time observation of service providers at work in the community with consumers.
There is certainly value in sitting with team members in the office engaged in discussion on approaches and techniques. However, seeing an individual provider in action with a person who receives services reveals much more information. In real-time situations, there is the chance for a supervisor to observe her team member and offer rich feedback about body language, tone of voice, timing, and the various nuances of different interventions such as motivational interviewing.
SAMI CCOE Director of Consultation and Training Ric Kruszynski, MSSA, LISW, LICDC, tells a story that illustrates how 20 minutes of real-time clinical supervision in the community with immediate feedback helped one team member refine her approach and find the tools she needed to help one woman’s journey toward health, wellness, stable housing, and recovery.
‘WHAT IS IT YOU DO WANT?’
Kruszynski's story comes from his own experience as a consultant in which a service provider asked for his counsel on how to connect with a woman diagnosed with co-occurring severe mental and substance use disorders who was resistant to all outreach efforts and had otherwise remained unengaged in services.
Kruszynski joined the client and case manager for a conversation over iced-tea in a family restaurant, an encounter that turned out to be an instance of real-time supervision of motivational interviewing. Kruszynski emphasizes that this is a prime example of how the investment of no more than a half hour of time produced results that ultimately changed two lives: the professional life of the service provider and the personal life of the consumer.
It is perhaps helpful to listen for how the clinician is guided to roll with resistance, to find the motivation that matters to the consumer, and the ways in which real-time supervisory feedback can have an immediate and lasting impact.
Matthew K. Weiland, MA, is senior writer, producer, and new-media specialist and Paul M. Kubek, MA, is director of communications at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University.
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