Transcript It Works In Practice, But Does It Work In Theory?

It Works In Practice, But Does It Work
In Theory? Cross-Cultural Program
Development & Service Delivery
Canadian Counselling Association
May 20, 2009
Saskatoon, SK
Barbara Jones, MEd, MA, CCC
The Family Psychology Centre
Jeff Chang, PhD, R.Psych.
Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology, Athabasca
University &
The Family Psychology Centre
It Works In Practice, But Does It Work In
Theory? Cross-Cultural Program Development &
Service Delivery
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Fast Forward: The Project as it currently
operates
Our influences and our stories
Some relevant bodies of knowledge
The story, or “How Not to Develop a Tidy,
Replicable Program”
What We Learned (and what others could
maybe learn)
Fast Forward: The Project as it
currently operates
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Funded by Alberta Health Services (the portion
formerly known as Alberta Mental Health Board)
One of 30+ school-based “mental health capacity
building projects” in Alberta.
All the others have been contracted with school
divisions – ours with a partnership of independent
schools, a nonprofit (Renfrew Educational
Services), and a private practice company (The
Family Psychology Centre [FPC])
Two schools:
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Almadina Language Charter Academy: publicly funded
ESL school for primarily Muslim students
Calgary Islamic School: private religious school
Fast Forward: The Project as it
currently operates
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Both K-9, 1300+ students
Some of the issues…
Service configuration:
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4 FTE bachelors level School Support Counsellors
.6 FTE mental health OT
1 Masters level Project Coordinator
Services…
Our influences and our stories
Barb
 20 years teaching experience (Special Ed/Counsellor)
 MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy
 Private psychotherapy practice
 Project lead for school, non-profit and now this project
 French, First Nations and now Muslim diversity
experience
Jeff
 Counselling psychologist
 Youth and family mental health programs
 Private practitioner for 17 years
 Large contracts in recent years
 Family therapy, solution-focused, narrative
 Qualitative research
Some relevant bodies of knowledge
Whole school mental health
 Move away from discrete interventions to:
prevention, promotion and education resources;
curriculum and professional development
programs; community partnerships;
development of connectedness in schools, as
opposed to “counselling” of individuals
 Australian initiatives: “Health Promoting
Schools”, “MindMatters”
Some relevant bodies of knowledge
Cross-cultural counselling
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Initial attempts to articulate cross-cultural
counselling approaches were conceptualized
from the perspective of dominant culture
counsellors relating to “the culturally different”
and being “culturally sensitive”
Increasingly there is appreciation of privilege
embedded in differences of class, gender,
race, sexual orientation and physical ability
Results: real power inequities/differential
access to resources
Imperative to connect to our cultural histories
and identities
Some relevant bodies of knowledge
Cross-cultural counselling
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BUT… even yesterday several people
commented that the field still largely
approaches this from the standpoint of the
dominant culture
Although we are of the dominant culture, we
are guests in the schools where we work.
The metaphors from which we operate
(anthropologist, missionary, traveler, tourist)
are not quite fitting
The story, or “How Not to Develop a
Tidy, Replicable Program”
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Possible pilot project funding afforded us the
opportunity to develop a program for a high needs
school population
Because we (FPC) were already aware of the
needs in the schools, and the schools formed a
distinct cultural group, FPC proposed a
collaboration between FPC, the Independent
Schools Association and Renfrew Education
Services.
In the context of schools having felt poorly served
by the larger educational community and feeling
that their students had been benignly neglected
and unfairly labeled, they respond cautiously, if
not suspiciously even after assurance of funding.
The story, or “How Not to Develop a
Tidy, Replicable Program”
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So then what?
Even though we were familiar with culturally alert
approaches to counselling, and a number of
approaches to school-based service delivery, we
chose not to enter with a theoretical approach.
We hired staff, we assigned them to schools, and
we “built the plane as we were flying it.”
We entered positioning ourselves to be:
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Collaborative
Respectful guests
Those who ‘serve’ rather than those who ‘help’
The story, or “How Not to Develop a
Tidy, Replicable Program”
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Stories of success…
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“She SPOKE!!”
“I see that as being a management problem that J. and I
are responsible for…”
“How the heck do I get this to stay on?”
“I wish I had a problem so that…”
“I don’t know what you’re doing but…”
“I don’t know how we did without this service…”
What We Learned (and what others
could maybe learn)
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In the real world, delivering services is messy
Local wisdom must be meshed with research
Inductive, qualitative research
(e.g.,participatory, phenomenological, grounded
theory), should be show-cased
Service and knowledge creation can co-exist
Transcultural competence is mutual
What We Learned (and what others
could maybe learn)
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Required attributes for staff are: flexibility,
“can-do” spirit, and boundaries
Relational positioning is more important
than model, technique or method
Macro-application of working alliance