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Counselling for Assistive Technology: a systemic approach
Record number: 413
Last update: April 2016
Type of document: Lectures
Last update: April 2016
Type of document: Lectures
Author: Caprino F
Editorial data: Dispense Corso di Alta Formazione "Tecnologie per l'Autonomia". Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus
Year of publication: 2016
Abstract:
The technical knowledge and a sincere desire to help the users may not be sufficient resources to ensure the success of the assistive technologies evaluation process and the effective improvement in the quality of life and personal autonomy. The introduction of assistive devices in everyday life can require complex adjustments, both on the personal and family side as well as on the social one, adjustments which could be an issue for the user and his/her environment. Each individual is a part of a network of relationships and personal well-being cannot be separated from the system’s well-being. Also professionals who evaluate assistive technologies solutions are part of a social system with its own beliefs, expectations, values; no one is a mere observer bearer of an objective truth. For the mentioned reasons it is fundamental, for the professionals, to acquire interpersonal and communication skills in order to enhance the user's resources, promoting the expression of needs, the objective’s identification and the active search of solutions. The method of systemic counseling, considering the dyad professional-user in a systemic way and placing the latter - caught in the complexity of its relations - as the protagonist of the choice process, is a way to overcome, through communication techniques based on listening, on rational use of questions and empathy skills, the personal and environmental obstacles that may affect the effectiveness of assistive technologies solutions in the life’s contexts.
The technical knowledge and a sincere desire to help the users may not be sufficient resources to ensure the success of the assistive technologies evaluation process and the effective improvement in the quality of life and personal autonomy. The introduction of assistive devices in everyday life can require complex adjustments, both on the personal and family side as well as on the social one, adjustments which could be an issue for the user and his/her environment. Each individual is a part of a network of relationships and personal well-being cannot be separated from the system’s well-being. Also professionals who evaluate assistive technologies solutions are part of a social system with its own beliefs, expectations, values; no one is a mere observer bearer of an objective truth. For the mentioned reasons it is fundamental, for the professionals, to acquire interpersonal and communication skills in order to enhance the user's resources, promoting the expression of needs, the objective’s identification and the active search of solutions. The method of systemic counseling, considering the dyad professional-user in a systemic way and placing the latter - caught in the complexity of its relations - as the protagonist of the choice process, is a way to overcome, through communication techniques based on listening, on rational use of questions and empathy skills, the personal and environmental obstacles that may affect the effectiveness of assistive technologies solutions in the life’s contexts.
Downladable documents:
- Diapositive: Il counselling sugli ausili: un inquadramento sistemico File format: pdf (374 KB)
- Dispensa: Il counselling sugli ausili: un inquadramento sistemico File format: pdf (208 KB)
