We will now address the question as to why organisations might get less inclusive over time. This has been mentioned in a number of different posts already (particularly in the Modalities of Helping Chapter).
It is a very important question for us to consider, and we need to reflect on the reasons at both a head and heart level. The reason that it is important is that agencies are sometimes set up to work with very vulnerable populations. However as time goes on the oppositional side of their vulnerability becomes apparent.
Organisations, begin, gradually, to drift away from their original mission and choose instead people that are more amenable and compliant.
I propose that there are many reasons why this happens. I have listed fifteen below. There may be more that you might think of which may be sparked by your own experience.
They are not written in any particular order of importance, but I will say that when I was writing this part of the Chapter that anger, little reward, and unreasonable demands, jumped out at me first – so they must have some significance for me. (And when I use terms such as ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’ I am referring to us practitioners, staff members in the organisation).
1. Anger: People who are very hurt may be angry and this comes out either directly (threatening or unacceptable behaviour), or indirectly (apathy, staying away, not turning up, etc). We unconsciously (or sometimes consciously) make more time for, and are attracted to, less angry people.
2. Very Little Reward: The very hurt person seems to be stuck in what we consider to be a destructive or unhelpful pattern of behaviour no matter what we do, so once again there is a natural tendency to favour those who change for the better like we want them to.
3. Unreasonable Demands: Most of us have a core belief that other people should not make unreasonable demands. If we continue to meet people who make unreasonable demands, and there is little or no let up, we will gradually find reasons to avoid such people and work with those who are reasonable.
4. ‘Health and Safety’: We use health and safety reasons for not engaging with people who are very vulnerable. We may confuse discomfort with danger.
5. Fear of Nature of Problem: We fear that we might not be able to solve the problem presented, particularly if it is a matter of life and death. (As it sometimes is)!
6. Size of Problem: If there are many interconnected difficulties adding to complexity we begin to start believing that we are making such little impact that there is no point in doing anything at all.
7. Legal Action: Sometimes we fear that if we get it wrong legal action might be taken against us or our organisation.
8. Prejudice: We believe that we know the best way to do it and when people don’t conform we gradually drift away and work with people who do conform to our way of thinking.
9. Pressure from Funding Agencies: We have to prove to the people who fund us that we are achieving results and so it is easier to work with someone who progresses quickly. In my experience the first people to be excluded (or subtly sidelined) in top-down type organisations are those who don’t appear to be making any progress.
10. We Have Responsibility without Power: We are asked to do a particular task but we are not given the resources to do it so we chose, instead, a situation that we have the resources for.
11. Energy: Our energy level is low as we are not offered, or do not ask for, enough internal or external support (e.g. supervision) as we go about our work. In order to feel energetic we chose people who will not make as many demands on us.
12. Lack of Training: Our training is not comprehensive, nor does it match the work to be done with families.
13. Not Listening: Because we feel that we know best, we do not listen to the concerns, hints, directions, etc. (sometimes given in code) of people we were set up to help.
14. Cultural Distance: We are culturally distant from the people who are distressed and we expect them to fit into our culture while we make little or no effort to close the cultural gap. Because of this we drift to people we are more comfortable with, culturally.
15. Power and Control: Working with people who are amenable and compliant feeds into our own need to feel powerful, and also our need to have control over our work practices, norms, values, core beliefs etc.
The fifteen reasons highlight the need for us to be creative (in order to continually encourage both ourselves and others to stay focused on the task in hand) and boundaried (in order to maintain freshness and energy) if we are truly committed to inclusiveness. Training is of vital importance also.
The Section on Practical Applications will address the above points and some light will (hopefully) be shed on how to build organisations so that they will be safe places for both staff and angry, disaffected and fearful people who make a lot of demands.