Person-Centered Practice as Anchor and Beacon: Pandemic Wisdom from the NCAPPS Community

Objective: This article summarizes the individual, systemic, and collective challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, based on 16 videos solicited by the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) and submitted by NCAPPS collaborators during the first six months of the pandemic. Method: Informed by participatory action approaches and content analysis, we describe common themes in a series of 16 videos solicited by NCAPPS from subject matter experts with professional and lived experience of disability and human services systems. Results: The team organized the findings to identify both specific factors within each of the levels and the complex interplay between each of the factors at four levels: (1) individual disabled people and their/our spouses, family, and friends; (2) person-centered strategies; (3) system, services, and providers; and (4) society. Discussion: Practices such as person-centered planning, peer support, and self-direction enable us to respond to and cope with the traumas caused by the pandemic. Systems-level themes reveal clear opportunities for abandoning outdated practices and rebuilding the service system in a more person-centered manner. Commentators argued that a society that strives for collective responsibility and well-being and leaves no one behind will generate the interdependence necessary to weather disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Person-centered practices are both an anchor for weathering the pandemic and a beacon for rebuilding lives, service systems, and communities

Collecting household water usage data: telephone questionnaire or diary?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA), a modelling approach, is used to assess health risks. Inputs into the QMRA process include data that characterise the intensity, frequency and duration of exposure to risk(s). Data gaps for water exposure assessment include the duration and frequency of urban non-potable (non-drinking) water use. The primary objective of this study was to compare household water usage results obtained using two data collection tools, a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) and a 7-day water activity diary, in order to assess the effect of different methodological survey approaches on derived exposure estimates. Costs and logistical aspects of each data collection tool were also examined.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 232 households in an Australian dual reticulation scheme (where households are supplied with two grades of water through separate pipe networks) were surveyed about their water usage using both a CATI and a 7-day diary. Householders were questioned about their use of recycled water for toilet flushing, garden watering and other outdoor activities. Householders were also questioned about their water use in the laundry. Agreement between reported CATI and diary water usage responses was assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results of this study showed that the level of agreement between CATI and diary responses was greater for more frequent water-related activities except toilet flushing and for those activities where standard durations or settings were employed. In addition, this study showed that the unit cost of diary administration was greater than for the CATI, excluding consideration of the initial selection and recruitment steps.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed that it is possible to successfully 'remotely' coordinate diary completion providing that adequate instructions are given and that diary recording forms are well designed. In addition, good diary return rates can be achieved using a monetary incentive and the diary format allows for collective recording, rather than an individual's estimation, of household water usage. Accordingly, there is merit in further exploring the use of diaries for collection of water usage information either in combination with a mail out for recruitment, or potentially in the future with Internet-based recruitment (as household Internet uptake increases).</p