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Those who study the Bible know that numbers have significance. As a faith-based organization, a significant number for Mosaic is 17. Personal Outcome Measure® 17 sets Mosaic apart from any other organization supporting people with developmental disabilities.
The national accrediting body for disabilities service providers is The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL). CQL has defined 21 Personal Outcome Measures (POMs) that are used to create the support plans for individuals with developmental disabilities. To be faithful to our mission, however, Mosaic worked with CQL and added a 22nd POM for people Mosaic supports: a spirituality outcome that landed as number 17 on our list of POMs. This is the outcome measure that identifies whether or not people have the opportunity to express spirituality in a way that enhances their lives within their community while asking if spirituality is something that is important to them.
"To CQL's knowledge, no other service provider has developed and utilized measures to determine if people are able to express their spiritual preferences according to their unique beliefs," said Beth Mathis, Quality Enhancement Specialist with CQL. "Perhaps more significantly, we are not aware of providers who are measuring the effectiveness of their supports for people in the area of spirituality."
CQL had explored the possibility of adding spirituality to its list of POMs but elected instead to provide guidance in exploring spirituality through the suggested questions and narrative, according to Mathis. They were supportive, however, of Mosaic's efforts because it is consistent with Mosaic's mission, vision and values as a faith-based organization.
"We did this with confidence that the outcome would never be used to limit people's ability to explore a spiritual side of life, and that Mosaic as a provider would support spirituality as one dimension of the diversity that adds richness to our communities."
Does Mosaic help meet the spiritual needs of people? Mosaic's quest for quality says we won't be satisfied until we know that every person we serve has the supports he or she needs to meet his or her spiritual preferences. We continually focus on improvement.
"For many people, spiritual life is both an intensely personal as well as an intensely communal experience. And, it is most often a lifelong journey," Mathis said. "It takes a very high level of trust and a degree of sophistication to learn about the uniqueness of how each person describes and wants to express his or her faith. Designing effective individualized supports is even more complex. Simply said, as with all things that are truly person-directed, it is an art, not a science."
Our faith and mission acknowledges that wholeness of life is the work of God. But we hope we're the tool to help in God's creation.