CRUcial Times Issue 28 - Editorial

Jane Sherwin

We can probably all relate to the experience of having to rely on a human service, such as a doctor, hospital, tax agent, bank or school. At these times we can find that the power rests with the agency and that our voices are small. We can find that our choices are limited to what the agency determines as being on the menu, and that the agency requires obedience to its rules. In disability and aged human services, having the uniqueness of our individuality recognised is particularly at risk. The issue is that we like control over matters that affect our lives and particularly those matters that we would consider to be in the private domain.

Writers in previous editions of CRUcial Times have analysed and exposed the impact of both small and large bureaucracies on the lives of the people they serve. This edition of CRUcial Times looks at one of the things that will safeguard against the bureaucratization of people’s lives: the nature of the relationship between server and served.

Regardless of their rhetoric, it is unlikely that any human service can be perfect. There are, however, things that services can do at an organisational level to minimize the impact of organisational processes and structures. And while it is easy for an individual worker to feel totally overwhelmed by the constraints of the organisation, there is still much that can be done by each individual. In this edition, Michael Kendrick reveals some of the ethical decisions that form a foundation for developing a more positive and authentic relationship, that which he calls ‘right relationship’.

This edition includes some illustrations of right relationship in action and what happens in its absence. When any two people come together, a ‘space’ is created by the attitudes and mindsets of each: by what is said, by what is not said, and by the agendas of each. We are usually not very conscious of this space, but we know intuitively whether it is good or not. The articles by Lisa Bridle, Sally Barone, and Sue Tuttle explore what happens when system or service meets citizen. They provide clear challenges and ideas for those who provide a service, in terms of what happens in the space between worker and citizen. It is in this space that there is an opportunity for the power differential to be changed. In this space, hope must be created. And it is in this space that ideas, energy, and enthusiasm for a better life can be either created or destroyed.

In the power struggle between the human service system and the people receiving the service, it is most often the service recipients who miss out on having their voices heard and the power and authority in their own lives recognized. Mary Kenny depicts what life would look like if people truly had authority in their own lives, while Vivien Twyford provides suggestions for authentic consultation to enable such a vision to come to fruition. Morrie O’Connor, reinforcing the importance of right relationship, tackles the challenges of choice and control in the lives of people with impaired decision-making capacity, whose choices could lead to harm to themselves.

Right relationship is a powerful tool in buffering the impact of technocratic processes and the weight of bureaucracy. Most importantly it gives us hope, by reminding us that no matter who we are, and where we are placed, no matter how strong the institutional agendas or how overwhelming the issues may seem, at an individual level there is always something we can do.