I am from a Radical Social Work background and have worked as a Community Worker, Social Worker, Residential Services Manager, Care Manager, Therapeutic Community Organiser, Counsellor, Group Worker, Therapist, Advocate and Volunteer Coordinator. I have worked within Social Services, Health Services Trusts and the Voluntary Sector, within multidisciplinary teams, involving Social Work, Nursing, Housing, Police, Voluntary Service Professionals and Volunteers. I have helped set up, run and supported Therapeutic Communities, Therapeutic Networks, and Service User Groups. These have involved people with a mixture of problems and personal issues. Within these various situations we have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of person centred and group work approaches, providing empowering alternatives and supplementary services, to specialist clinical and other community care support. Just over 25 years ago I started the formal process of on-going Operational Research. That is, research while undertaking a professional role. This was an extension of the investigative and experimental work I had already begun. My early work had identified a far greater potential for people to overcome their difficulties for themselves, taking control of the resources they needed and collectively organising some of these between themselves. This proved very effective. The ideas had been tried, now we had to advance the principles and establish reliable ways of maintaining the initiatives, often against considerable professional resistance. I also recognised that the existing theories, concerning Mental Illness, Disability and Dependency, was very prejudicial to people's opportunities for self determination. The predominant theories suppressed a person's expectations for overcoming 'being disabled' and were basically incompetent. It was, as many people with physical impairments had already begun to recognised, the society and professional attitudes that 'disable' people, not the condition itself. This was clearly just as true for people with learning difficulties and with mental health challenges. I believe this to be the case to such an extent that I have real difficulty describing people as being 'mentally Ill', a term that almost 'qualifies' them (us) to get help by way of others taking control over us in some way. I recognised that there was great potential in developing a radically new perspective on what we understand to be mental health and disability. This was to be a means to enable people to feel that they are a full part of the community and no longer disabled by their experiences. Obviously, I was not alone in this thinking of the time, but there were no real attempts to understand why our culture, institutions and professions needed such a disabling approach to do the job. I already had a pretty good idea of what the disabling process was, but needed to observe how professional's collectively perpetuated this unnecessary restriction and what important part Institutions played in this. The problems was not your standard 'empirical' investigation. It was not so much about looking for the evidence, but investigating 'how' we tend to look for the evidence and 'how' we tend to interpret the evidence we 'perceive' and then how we further 'conceptualise' it. It was for this reason, and because it was so difficult to change entrenched views, that I began to research the process of institutionalisation, of learning and of other mental processes, that lead to this entrenchment, or else lead to more open, creative revisions of thinking. From this perspective I began to develop my theories concerning the unification of genetic and environmental adaptation. Having discovered the flaws in our thinking, I than began to energetically campaigned for changes. I have been involved in Campaigns for the improvement of services to various user groups over the last 35 years. Initially seeking to improve services and resources for people with learning difficulties, facilitating their discharge from Special Hospitals. I subsequently undertook research into physical disability services and campaigned for improved, more empowered services to those with Mental Health and Alcohol & Drug problems. More recently I have become interested in Older Adult issues, particularly people learning to live with Dementia, maximising their potential and advancing their support needs for maintaining independence. This has necessarily involved supporting family carers and partners in adjusting to the changing demands. People adapt and thrive differentially in overcoming their difficulties. Social learning and collective action, empowers and enables all client groups, whatever their problems. The Campaign for Learning Difficulties was primarily at a National level, but I have focused more at the local level in recent years. I mainly provide support to Self Help groups with minimal financial requirements and minimal professional input. I have been using these as a 'test bed', seeing how these kind of support systems can work. I, and these service users, are now interested in taking the campaign to a National level and developing a new, radical, interactive, web based service. Our next challenge is to set up a County Wide Service Users Conference, involving people with a range of different problems. As with the case of Learning Difficulties Conferences, the objective will be to establish an initial 'reference group of keen individuals and representative members of existing Service User and Carer's groups. This reference group would then be supported to promote the idea of a Conference, organised and attended by interested Service Users. Carers would have their own forum and Service users would establish whatever forums that they saw fit. They would set the agenda, decide what speakers to invite, who will be the delegates and what individuals and representatives of Community Services would be invited as observers. This approach is quite different to the invitation of a few 'representatives' onto a pre-organised Committee, where the agenda is usually set by the institution. There is more to come on this and Wiltshire is the chosen county.
Organizational ProfileIt is our objective to promote and advance the understanding between various professional groups and the 'service users' that they are organised to support. For me, this work began in the 1970's with involvement with other professionals and media workers, in campaigning to promote the development of Community Care services for people with learning difficulties, in the UK. We did not do this alone. Others have also independently taken these radical steps through out the UK and other parts of the world. Since then; myself, co-workers and service users (in various teams), have tested and extended the basic principles of Community Care and 'Person Centred' working, with people who experience; Alcohol and Drug problems, Mental Health difficulties, Relationship Abuse, Work Place Abuse, Physical Disability, Dementia Care, Homelessness and Unemployment. This has culminated in Local User Support Groups & Networks. The current initiative is to develop an integrated Internet Support Services & an expanded Therapeutic Network, through this and other 'interactive' sites. We don't do this alone either. There are other people centred, therapeutic groups out in the big wide world, struggling to get recognition and support. Some have been worn down, some have done their job for now and dissolved and others have been replaced by 'new initiatives'. Some have grown, some have been swallowed up by bigger organisations and others have just lost their way. It is in the nature of these groups and organisations that 'change' happens and not always for the best. Sometimes we must step back and get back to the basic principles. This is what we are seeking to assist with. We are a 'Person Centred' Service and Resource, (Having a Service User, Client, Patient focus). We start from the premise that 'any' mental or emotional distress, however expressed, or whatever severity, is substantially aggravated by social and cultural influences. Similarly, the recovery from, or amelioration of mental and emotional distress, is significantly affected by the social context and social forces, negative and positive, constructive and destructive. This is not to say that clinical interventions are not valuable but that medications and therapies are not enough in themselves. Change and adaptation is essential. We also extend this principle to other areas of mental and emotional functioning. The personal impact and consequences of learning difficulties, of stokes and of dementia, although they have clearly identified physical causations, are still substantially influences by the reacting communities and the cultures within which a person resides. The effects of Bullying, Prejudice, Discrimination and other Physical, Sexual, Psychological & Emotional Abuse, all have their cumulative effect. We do not live in a vacuum. The individual and collective effects have substantial impact on the well-being of self & others. Experience has shown that disabilities have potential compensatory mechanisms, which come from within ourselves and can also arise from within our cultures. The effectiveness of these compensations (and the social impact) change with time and suffer the effects of the increased complexity of society, the reduction of personal autonomy and the resulting 'disempowerment' of the individual. This disability initiative is an example of 'social' compensation, along with many other voluntary and statutory initiatives. Evidence of the effective 'personal' adaptations are also seen within these social initiatives. We seek to identify and formulate these natural forces; personal, cultural, communal and social influences and the inherent compensatory mechanisms that individuals and societies have. We also look at the situation from a truly 'holistic' perspective, taking account of physical, emotional, psychological, social, moral and spiritual aspects of the person and the social context in which they live. This necessarily includes the political, religious and other institutional influences. Experiential learning is part of the adaptive mechanism that makes all this possible. See: The Theory My Credential
| Radical:
Why Radical? My own definition stems from a very clear definition of the term, as used in science. Free radicals are 'open' [shell], highly reactive and keen to bond with other radicals & reactive entities, while retaining their own special character. Thus, this concept of Radical is associated with the potential to be open to change: responsive and reactive to knowledge, experience, ideas and other perspectives. While being thus, they also remain true to their own character and expanding knowledge & experience. Organisation:
Many of my views & ideas, about the character of organisations, stem from my own extensive experience at the receiving end & working within them. This has also been reinforced by the varied experiences that my clients' have described to me & that I have observed in advocating for them.
My interest in organisations is not limited to statutory and voluntary bodies. I have worked with large, multinational IT Companies & smaller businesses, including being self employed & operating within the leisure and entertainment industries. Social Analysis:
I was, for a while, an Associate Researcher at BIOSS; Brunel Institute for Organisation and Social Studies (Brunel University). Professor Elliott Jacques & his colleagues were researching the relationship between people & organisations. It was essentially a Psychoanalytic (Melanie Klein) approach.
This was very influential in my thinking. Although I am not particularly persuaded by classic psychoanalytic theory; the 'folklore' like character of psychoanalysis does interest me. Folklore is an extension of the way that cultures collectively express their understanding of the nature of mankind, the kinds of relationships formed & its forms of institutions.
I have adapted this Social Analytic approach to suit my own perspective on the nature of human thinking, behaviour & the forms of organisation. For myself, communities, institutions, nations & methods of communication, are natural manifestations of human needs, thinking & aspirations.
By their nature, they have the same basic character & style of development, that individual humans are seen to have. They evolve, thrive, stagnate, corrupt and die in much the same way.
The psychology of the individual is therefore manifested in the relationships & forms of social order that we can observe. It is the psychology of these relationships and the general character of human beings, that we study when we seek a scientific understanding of human psychology. Individual psychologies remain relatively private and capable of stepping outside the psycho-social box. Communication & Understanding:
The technologies that these social institutions develop are extensions of our senses & the methods of communication. The collective knowledge & conceptualisations evolve as a consequence of our need to procreate, establish inter-dependent social communities, extend the boundaries of our domain & harness nature to our mutual benefit (or demise).
Human evolution is a very sophisticated form of evolution & adaptation. One in which we, individually and collectively determine not only our blood line, but also the kind of environment & forms of social order that our offspring grow up in. Further more, we can override many of our own endowed limitations & help others to overcome theirs; to their own & their societies benefit (or even mutual disadvantage).
The kinds of institutions that we set up are therefore critical and more important for the future, than for the individual greed & self interest they are often turned to serve. |
