I have been working as a supervisor for 20 years. My experience obtained in healthcare, the social institutional system and among pedagogues during this time urge me to write about inter-institutional supervision.

The complex work of health visitors may be facilitated by the various forms of supervision, i.e. the individual, the group and the team supervision. In each work form, reflection, self-reflection and the experience-based learning play significant role.

The work of health visitors is highly complex, since they work not only with children and their families, but they also cooperate with similar professions and they are in strong relation with the representatives and the institutions thereof.

For instance in child protection, health visitors are considered as one of the important actors in the “signalling system”. Under the name of “case conference”, the representatives of the different organisations have the possibility to meet along a certain common case.

These relationships work sometimes well and sometimes very cumbersome.

It occurs that a case is considered differently by the representatives of certain institutions. This may have various reasons: the institutions work on the basis of different priorities, their representatives are trained differently in their professions and they have different experiences etc.

It often makes the cooperation of the institutions more difficult.

However, the lots of differences are valuable and they may be also a treasure chest.

Accident investigators are often angry due to the highly different statements of the witnesses. They saw the same accident, and still everyone tells it differently, even the opposite of the one told by the other witness. This can be very infuriating. However, the solution is simple: the witnesses saw the events from different sites and aspects.

These different views can be benefited from during supervision. The inter-institutional supervision gives an opportunity to jointly make the reflections, to learn together and to elaborate joint solutions in a so-called “protected environment”, i.e. not in a real situation when urged by the necessity of decision.

The different institutions working for the same family (foundation association, religious organisation, police etc.) take part with 1-1 representatives in the inter-institutional supervision. Similarly to the organisation of psychodrama groups, groups may be homogeneous (e.g. a given age group, heads of the institutions) or heterogeneous ones (e.g. a group of different ages). By making use of the homogeneity or heterogeneity, groups set different objectives for themselves.

In case of the organisations or institutions working for the same family, a group of people working directly with the family may be organised, or groups may be organised along the hierarchy for middle managers or senior managers. In these groups, of course, the direction of reflection and self-reflection is different. The experience and the feeling of the common learning may be applied in real situations. Along the teamwork and the reflections, a nuanced picture of reality is obtained which unites into a jointly obtained knowledge. A problematic case may be solved not only from the perspective and with the efforts of a single profession, but it is born in the interlinked service system of the integration of the professions.

The aim of the inter-institutional supervision may be the learning of cooperation and the more harmonised and more efficient service of the institutions. The aim may also be the improvement and the strengthening of the personal competences in accordance with the interests of the institutions, the mobilisation of the internal and common energies and the increase of the efficiency of work.

The points of learning: cooperation, improvement of the communication among institutions, the understanding and the acceptance of competences, the harmonisation of the different institutional cultures, the strengthening of the loyalty towards each other’s institutions, the appropriate organisation of tasks, the clarification and the harmonisation of the personal scopes of responsibilities and the topics set by the formed team for itself.

In the groups organised in this way the following results can be expected:

  • More transparent tasks and competences, more harmonised service.
  • The mutually multifaceted understanding of the contacting tasks.
  • The incidental discrepancies and parallelisms originating from the structure may be eliminated.
  • The participants can perform their work in a more balanced way in case of increased load as well.
  • They may treat the resolution of the appearing dilemmas with higher safety and they become more flexible.
  • Their self-understanding increases.
  • The participants perceive the events in a more realistic way, even in the level of their institutions.
  • Their professional identity and competence improve,

which increases the efficiency of the institution, the institutions and the branch and indirectly leads to the more efficient utilisation of the resources. The professional relationships receive a new quality.

Summary:

This novel interpretation of the currently available relationships would be able to significantly improve the more balanced work and the efficiency of health visitors. It would be great to have more and more possibilities for the utilisation of the form of work above.

LITERATURE

  • Vizsolyi, Á.: Intézményközi szupervízió, fejlesztő folyamat. (Inter-institutional supervision, developing process), Manuscript, 2010.
  • Budai, I.:

http://www.kka.hu/_Kozossegi_Adattar/PAROLAAR.NSF/ac17badd073f25168525670c00816aef/05c93c1bb32e14e7c1257bc000426014

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