CRUcial Times Issue 21 - Feature Article

The Contribution Of Service Workers In Getting The Relationship "Right" Between People With Disabilities And Their Communities

Michael Kendrick is a regular contributor to CRUcial Times. In this article he sets out some important ways in which the small efforts of ordinary members of the community can be encouraged by direct support workers, who have a role at the interface between the local community and some of its vulnerable members.

It is not always obvious to us that our personal efforts in our communities make all that much difference on any given day. Nevertheless when we step back and view it over a longer period of time there are often signs that give encouragement. This is the case with what may seem the rather ‘ordinary’ efforts of everyday service workers in helping people with disabilities to be more fully a part of their communities and to fully enjoy it. The very simplicity of these contributions often masks their potential profundity and importance. That is why it is important to give them the recognition they deserve. What follows are some examples of how such contributions are made.

Help people meet people. Loneliness and isolation can be terrible burdens and it is always a welcome change to meet and spend time with others. However, meeting new people is not always easy, and even a small amount of thoughtful assistance can go a long way towards making the process an easier one. It is also true that the more a person gets experience with doing this, the more relaxed and natural it can become. Many a service worker has found a way to be helpful in bringing people together.

Keep community encounters comfortable. Underneath the surface of our lives within community there are many fears, doubts, anxieties and apprehensions that can inhibit the ways in which people simply ‘are’ with each other. For example, many people with disabilities encounter a certain discomfort in those who are not sure how to act, or who are uneasy being in the presence of people whose appearance or disability is a difficulty for them. It is interesting that despite the fact things may start this way, people can quite quickly shed such fears and inhibitions as they come to realize that people are just people. Anyone who helps build feelings of comfort between others is making a useful contribution and often this may be a contribution that support staff can make.

Help people see the potential of people with disabilities. It is a common problem that most people underestimate the capacities of people with disabilities to play a larger role in community life. This is not easily overcome but it will eventually yield to the efforts of people with disabilities, their staff and other supporters to open people’s minds and to change their ways. Since these changes often come in small increments it may not always seem like a ‘breakthrough’, but looking back it can be seen that indeed it was one. Often it is just be a matter of persevering until we get a chance to show people what is really possible when someone is given a chance and thoughtful support. Many support workers would do well to be recognized as potential ‘mind changers’ and ‘opportunity makers’.

Help non-disabled people to see their own potential in relation to people with disabilities. It may not be clear to many non-disabled people that they have a contribution to make that would be welcomed and appreciated. Some people may be bound up with their own misleading stereotypes about themselves and thus not act in ways that would be helpful, but many people are simply unsure of themselves and may benefit from a bit of expanded vision and steady encouragement to explore the kinds of roles and contributions they can make to benefit people with disabilities. Their contributions could spill into any conceivable role in life that they could either personally play, or support being played by people with disabilities. These roles could include friend, neighbour, employer, club member, colleague, spouse, business partner, mentor, ally or many other roles. There is no ‘automatic’ role; people must discover what comes naturally and what is most welcome and needed. In this regard, they might well be aided by a supportive and encouraging service worker.

Help people to develop and live important values. We are all familiar with values and attitudes that would benefit people with disabilities. Often we discover that we need to re-learn and re-apply these. It is an ongoing struggle to develop and live our values with a measure of integrity, yet these values are well worth the effort in terms of the way they can make life-changing differences. That is why it is important to not lose sight of values such as respect, open-mindedness, fairness and honesty. It cannot be assumed that people always understand the connection between their values and how others are eventually perceived and treated. Nevertheless, this awareness can be stimulated and nurtured, as can be the realization that their values and resultant attitudes matter. Many service workers often provide good role models to others in regard to these, particularly when they have to struggle hard themselves to behave honourably.

Help people to stay involved with and connected to people with disabilities. Being part of a community is not just a matter of meeting people in a community, it is much more a matter of continuing to be part of a community and staying connected to its life and people. This embedding of people in community life is a process that builds one day upon another, and dividends will be paid by maintaining focus and effort. This may be made a lot easier if service workers understand and commit themselves to the continuity of relationships and community presence. When they do so, the natural facilitative process is helped along thereby ensuring that people with disabilities are more deeply an ongoing part of the life of their community.

Recognize and appreciate the contributions people make. A day hardly goes by where an ordinary person does not behave in a way that is helpful and welcome. Often, such actions would continue, strengthen and become more natural if they were noticed, appreciated and reinforced. Such recognition can help to move conduct that is tentative or impulsive into something deeper and more enduring if it is applauded and affirmed, however discreetly. Sometimes just letting people know that they are on the right track can help keep them there, particularly if it becomes clear to them that their action is welcome and needed. Service workers often play a critically supportive role in noticing small gestures by ordinary members of the community and in encouraging them to continue and flourish.

Help people struggle for a sense of what a better community would be. If we cannot imagine better, we often fail to achieve what is possible and practical, because of our limited sense of what is possible. Even when we can see the potential of individuals we might still miss seeing what the role of an ‘enabling’ or ‘better’ community would look like. Thus it is very important for all of us to play some part in both imagining a better community and creating small examples of it. Though it may surprise some people, this often begins not with grand schemes of community change but rather in the small examples of ‘better’ that can be created in opportune pockets in our communities. Consequently, these imaginative efforts at community improvement often involve everyday service workers who have a sense of mission and the resolve to make progress.

In our everyday efforts in our communities, it is important for us to remember that it is always the few that precede the many, the small that beget the large, and the obscure that humble the famous. It is important that service workers not become persuaded that their efforts do not matter, as we would all be the poorer for their absence. It is better that we see these contributions for the importance they hold, and encourage service workers in their efforts to get the relationship between communities and people with disabilities to be ‘right’.