A while back I posted an item about such an experience in Canada. (Somebody may be able to pull it from the archives?). Anyhow a large group home facility in Canada learned about Open Space and wanted to use it to support their staff and administration. To save money they did their first one in one of their facilities and the clients (all developmentally disabled) just came in and sat down. Apparently it took some added assistance on the part of the care givers, but that is what they had been doing anyhow. And aside from that, everything seemed to work just like usual. As I said there had been no intention to involve the clients - they just came by.
The most surprising thing was that after that event the program discovered that it was able to provide twice the level of service for the same budget. Seems like a lot of the things that the program was doing the clients neither wanted nor needed, but nobody ever talked to them. Then a year later it was discovered that the clients involved had made a greater jump in their level of coping skills than anybody could remember. The Director of the program wrote me to say that while I had certainly never intended it, OST turns out to be a very powerful treatment modality. Sad to say I can't remember the name of the program or the director. Maybe some of our Canadian folks will know? Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20854 Phone 301-365-2093 Skype hhowen Open Space Training <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute <http://www.openspaceworld.org/> www.openspaceworld.org Personal website <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html> www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cassandra O'Neill Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 8:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: OST with people with cognitive disabilities Hi, I was wondering if people had experience doing OST with people with cognitive disabilities such as people with developmental disabilities? If so, how did it work and would you recommend any modifications? Thanks. Cassandra Cassandra O'Neill, Wholonomy Consulting LLC www.wholonomyconsulting.com (520) 888-2545 (c) 520-403-0687 fax (520) 844-3251 * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
