1 / 25

New SPECs

New SPECs. When Good Intentions are not Enough. 6 May 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Czech Republic. Sigismund Freud is born Went on to develop Psychoanalysis Way of helping individuals Based on unconscious Based on defenses Based on detachment. Freud had good intentions….but his approach was.

emanuel
Download Presentation

New SPECs

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. New SPECs When Good Intentions are not Enough

  2. 6 May 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Czech Republic • Sigismund Freud is born • Went on to develop • Psychoanalysis • Way of helping individuals • Based on unconscious • Based on defenses • Based on detachment

  3. Freud had good intentions….but his approach was Deficit oriented Reactive Expert driven Individualistic

  4. Many generations of helpers • Wanted to be little Freuds • Studied models that reinforced • Deficit-ism • Reactive-ism • Expert-ism • Individual-ism In short: Clienthood and Patienthood

  5. Why??? • It’s easier to deal with problems if they have names (hence deficits: neurotic, crazy) • It’s hard to prevent something you don’t see • It gives us all a sense of self-importance to be experts • It’s easier to blame people than to change social conditions (lazy, unmotivated, poor parenting, etc). We’re part of the status quo, like it or not!

  6. Consequences of medical model CONTINUUM OF SERVICES Wellness Promotion Prevention Treatment 1% 99% BUDGET ALLOCATION

  7. Big wake up call!!! • No mass disorder, afflicting humankind, has ever been eliminated, or brought under control, by treating the affected individual • HIV/AIDS, poverty, child abuse, powerlessness are not eliminated one person at a time.

  8. Less Deficits-based Reactive Expert-driven Individualistic More Strengths-based Primary Prevention Empowerment Community Conditions The Need for a new Model

  9. The time and space of helping Collective X Reactive Preventive Individual

  10. Time and Space: Individualistic and Reactive Approaches are not Enough Collective Quadrant IV Examples: Food banks, shelters for homeless people, charities, prison industrial complex Quadrant I Examples: Community development, affordable housing policy, recreational opportunities, high quality schools and health services Reactive Proactive Quadrant II Examples: Skill building, emotional literacy, fitness programs, personal improvement plans, resistance to peer pressure in drug and alcohol use Quadrant III Examples: Crisis work, therapy, medications, symptom containment, case management Individual

  11. The feelings of the helping process Strengths X Expert driven Empowerment Deficits

  12. Deficits and Expert driven approaches are not helpful!!! Strength Quadrant I Examples: Voice and choice in celebrating and building competencies, recognition of personal and collective resilience Quadrant IV Examples: Just say no! You can do it! Cheerleading approaches, Make nice approaches Expert driven Empowerment Quadrant III Examples: Labeling and diagnosis, “patienthood” and clienthood,” citizens in passive role Quadrant II Examples: Voice and choice in deficit reduction approaches, participation in decisions how to treat affective disorders or physical disorders Deficit

  13. Strengths and Empowerment Moohamad Yunus: The anti-expert

  14. Prevention and Changing Conditions: Women of Kerala

  15. SPEC is about Outcomes

  16. And about process • Can’t have a good outcome without a good process • Without a good process the outcomes are superficial and not sustainable

  17. Martha O’Bryan Center New SPECsThree-year action research project Oasis Center Bethlehem Center UNHS

  18. Principles of New SPECs • Ownership by workers and community members • Participation of workers and community members • Home grown solutions • Practice and reflection • Learning and taking risks together

  19. Goals of New SPECs • Develop practices in line with SPEC • Develop policies in line with SPEC • Institutionalize SPEC in the life of the organization and the community

  20. Challenges in New SPECs • Too much process without outcomes • Too many outcomes without a good process • Institutionalize SPEC in the life of the organizations • Ownership for sustainability • “Power before program”

  21. Opportunities • Create in partnership a new model for health and human services • Help in efficient ways millions of people who are currently suffering because the conditions are too overwhelming for them to overcome on their own • Educate millions of health and human service providers on the benefits of a SPEC approach

  22. Accomplishments to date • Commitment • Research • Learning • Perseverance • Changes in various organizations • Energized workforce • Meaning

  23. It’s like Venice…..

  24. Venice’s Lesson • “The psychotherapist, social worker or social reformer, concerned only with his own clients and their grievance against society, perhaps takes a view comparable to the private citizen of Venice who concerns himself only with the safety of his own dwelling and his own ability to get about the city. But if the entire republic is slowly being submerged, individual citizens cannot afford to ignore their collective fate, because, in the end, they all drown together if nothing is done” (Badcock, 1982)

  25. Thank you for wearing new SPECs!!

More Related