4. Values-based practice and the Ten ESCs

The 10 Pointers to good process

It is easier to understand and remember the 10 pointers to good process if you apply them to a real situation. And they can be linked with the Ten ESCs. The next activity will help you to do this.

Read this account carefully and then complete the activity that follows.

When you have completed this activity you may like to look at the example below in the table ‘Mila’s account – example feedback’.

Mila’s account
‘Basically I’ve had a shit life. I had a hell of a childhood with abuse, racism and foster care. I came into services when I was 11 years old. I think it must have been because I was harming myself pretty badly by then. Being part of child mental health services wasn’t too bad – they pissed me off sometimes but I generally got the feeling they wanted to help me, it was just so difficult. But when I was 18 years old they moved me into adult services and I had my first admission on an adult ward. My god, what a shock – they looked at me as if I was a criminal. I felt they hated me, saw me as a time waster stopping all the people who were really ill from getting help. I know I was difficult; I was just all over the place, my moods seemed so extreme. I felt wretched all the time and nobody seemed to understand. They kept telling me to stop being so attention-seeking and take some responsibility for myself. But I just felt like exploding all the time and the more they didn’t like me and ignored me the more I wanted to hurt myself and the more they said I was attention-seeking. No one told me I had been diagnosed as having a personality disorder – I don’t know if they treated me the way they did because of how I behaved or because they had been told my diagnosis. I just know it was a shit time and no one seemed happy, me or them.’


Microsoft Word IconPlease complete activity 4.3 in your learning log.

Once you have completed activity 4.3 click through to the next slide.