Transcript Lorem Ipsum - University of Miami

Understanding and Promoting
Well-Being
Isaac Prilleltensky
[email protected]
www.education.miami.edu/isaac
Kerala: A Community Strengths
Story
Kerala: A state in Southwest
India. The name "Kerala"
probably means "land of
coconuts."
Population: 31.8 million
Kerala's population is the
same as Canada's.
Indicator
Kerala
India
Low income
countries
USA
Per Capita GDP
$
566
460
420
34,260
Adult Literacy
Rate (%)
91
58
39
96
Males (f)
68
63
59
74
Females (f)
74
64
Infant Mortality
per 1,000
12
65
80
7
Birth Rate Per
1,000
17
29
40
16
Life Expectancy
in Years
80
Processes
Well-Being in Kerala
Personal
Empowerment
Outcomes
Personal
Well-Being
Infant
mortality
Literacy
Nutrition
Life expectancy
Social
Movements
Relational
And
Organizational
Well-Being
Social support
Sense of
cohesion
Government
Action
Community
Well-Being
Tenancy laws
Nutrition in school
Distribution
Of resources
Land reform
The State of Wellness
Wellness is a positive state of affairs, brought about
by the simultaneous satisfaction of personal,
relational, organizational and collective needs
Part I: Understanding Well-Being
 There cannot be well-being but in the combined presence
of personal, relational, organizational and community
well-being
Personal Well-being
 Sense of control
 Physical health
 Love
 Optimism
 Competence
 Dignity and integrity
 Growth
 Self-esteem
 Meaning and spirituality
Effects of lack of control and
disempowerment on mortality
Relational Well-Being
 Support
 Affection
 Bonding
 Cohesion
 Collaboration
 Respect for diversity
 Democratic participation
Effects of Social Support
 Less likely to have heart attacks
 More likely to survive cancer
 More likely to resist common cold virus
 Lower mortality
 Less degree of stress
 More positive outlook on life
 Resilience
Organizational Well-Being
 Efficient structures
 Clear roles
 Monitoring mechanisms
 Planning and accountability
 Growth opportunities
 Fulfillment of needs
 Identity and meaning
Organizational Well-Being:
ERA Environments
High
Reflective Environment
High
Low
Low
Affective Environment
Low
High
Effective
Environment
Community well-being
 Economic prosperity
 Social justice
 Adequate health and social services
 Low crime
 Adequate housing
 Clean environment
 Support for community structures
Probability of death bet ages 15-60 in
2020 – males -- Interactions
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
EME FSE CHN LAC
OAI MEC IND SSA
Male Life Expectancy by Inequality
78
76
74
Swed/Jap
Australia
Canada
USA White
USA Afri. Amer.
72
70
68
66
64
GINI
24.5
GINI
31.5
GINI GINI 45 GINI 45
35.5 USA W USA
AA
Colombia: Happy but Dead
 Highest rate of murders per capita in the world
 Highest number of kidnappings in the world
Colombia 5181 in 7 years
 Mexico 1269
 Brazil 515
 Venezuela 109
 Severe under reporting
 Colombians report highest level of satisfaction 8.31 (out of 10) in the
world in the 90s

South Africa: 6.08
Is happiness really a genetic phenomenon?
Lykken and Tellegen (1996, Psychological Science).
 In the Minnesota twins study, authors report,
 “Neither socioeconomic status, educational
attainment, family income, marital status, not an
indicant of religious commitment could account
for more than about 3% of the variance in WB” (in
monozygotic twins)
 “We estimate that the heritability of the stable
component of subjective well-being approaches
80%”
Change in life satisfaction over the years
(Inglehart, 2004)
Russia’s happiness and satisfaction
plunges
Two African Countries
Income is not everything though
Two African Countries
Wealth matters for life expectancy
Chinese happiness and democracy
Preliminary Summary
 Subjective reports of happiness incongruous with
physical evidence of illness, mortality, and crime

Within countries


Poor report high levels of happiness but have low
levels of physical and mental well-being
Across countries



Some poor countries report low levels of happiness
and others fairly high
All poor countries show low levels of physical and
mental well-being
Subjective well-being goes up and down depending on
social circumstances (Russia, Belgium, Switzerland)
Preliminary Summary
 Absolute poverty predicts low levels of physical
and mental well-being, within and across
countries (Kleinman, Eisenberg, etc.)
 Relative deprivation predicts social gradient in
physical and mental well-being within countries
(Marmot, Wilkinson)
 Freedom is important in subjective well-being, but
there are exceptions like China
 Wealth does not necessarily lead to a happy or
meaningful life (Adams, Cushman, Sloan, Ryan)
New definition of well-being
 Well-being is a positive state of affairs in
individuals, relationships, organizations,
communities, and the natural environment,
brought about by the simultaneous and balanced
satisfaction of objective and subjective needs;
and by the behavioral manifestation of material
and psychological justice in these five ecological
domains.
Ecological Model of Well-Being
Sites of Well-Being
Individual
Relational
Organizational
Communal
Environmental
Objective signs
health
networks
resources
social
capital
low emissions
Subjective
Signs
efficacy
voice
support
belonging
safety
Values as
source and
strategy
autonomy
caring
participation
diversity
protection of
resources
Justice as
source and
strategy
My
due/Our
due
Your
due/Our
due
Its due/Our
due
Their
due/Our
due
Nature’s
due/Our due
Model of Well-Being:
Some positive and negative factors
Sites of Well-Being
Individual
Relational
Organizational
Communal
Environmental
Objective signs
+health
- illness
+networks
-isolation
+resources
- lack of resources
-social capital
-lack of trust
+clean air
-pollution
Subjective
signs
+efficacy
-lack of control
+voice
-repression
+support
-isolation
+belonging
-rejection
+safety
-fear
Values as
source and
strategy
+autonomy
-lack of power
+caring
-neglect
+participation
-marginality
+diversity
-discrimination
+protection of
resources
-depletion of
resources
Justice as
source and
strategy
My due/Our
due
Your due/Our
due
Its due/Our due
Their due/Our
due
Nature’s due/Our
due
Part II: Promoting Well-Being
From
 Deficits
 Reactive
 Arrogance
 Individual blame
To
 Strengths
 Prevention
 Empowerment
 Community Change
Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment,
Community change
The
Grameen
Bank
1960s
Lesson #1: Strengths
We all have strengths
We all need to be treated with
respect
We all need to be given a chance
9/7/1854…Removing the Handle of
London’s Broad Street Pump
Lesson #2: Prevention
 “No mass disorder, afflicting humankind,
has ever been eliminated, or brought under
control, by treating the affected individual”
 HIV/AIDS, poverty, child abuse, school
drop out, addictions, powerlessness are
never eliminated one person at a time
 Must focus on prevention to reduce the
incidence of psychological, behavioral, and
social problems in children and youth
Too much reaction, not enough prevention
Investments in Reactive vs. Proactive Interventions in Health and
Community Services (Nelson et al, 1996; OECD, 2005; de Bekker-Grob et al., 2007)
100
90
Investments in
Prevention:
80
Italy 0.6%
70
USA 3%
60
50
Netherlands
4.3%
40
Canada 8%
30
20
10
0
Reactive
7/17/2015
Preventive
Prilleltensky
34
Ratio of Benefits to Costs (Lynch, 2007,
page 19)
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Abecedarian
CPC
Perry Age 27
Perry Age 40
Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment,
Community change
Lesson #3: Empowerment
 Identifying the external source of
oppression in life can be empowering
 Empowerment is a means and an end in
itself
 Empowerment can be a tool for social
change and personal healing at the same
time
Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment,
Community change
Lesson #4: Community change
 “The psychotherapist, social worker or social
reformer, concerned only with his (her) own
clients and their grievance against society,
perhaps takes a view comparable to the private
citizen of Venice who concerns himself only with
the safety of his own dwelling and his own ability
to get about the city. But if the entire republic is
slowly being submerged, individual citizens
cannot afford to ignore their collective fate,
because, in the end, they all drown together if
nothing is done.” (Badcock, 1982)
Place and class in infant mortality
Social capital and community well-being
crime
tolerance
education
welfare
health
low
med
high
Low SC: LA, MS, GA
Med SC: CA, MO, OK
Hi SC: ND, SD, VT, MN
Example 1: Miami SPEC project
Organizational conditions leading to transformative
practice: Findings from a multi-case study, action
research investigation
 University of Miami SPEC Team
 Isaac Prilleltensky
 Ora Prilleltensky
 Scot Evans
 Adrine McKenzie
 Debbie Nogueras
 Randy Penfield
 Corinne Huggins
 Nick Mescia
What is transformative practice?
 In the context of community, educational, health,
and human service organizations, we define
transformative practice as consisting of four
principles




Strengths
Prevention
Empowerment
Community change
DRAIN VS. SPEC APPROACHES
Drain Approach
 Deficits-based
 Reactive
 Alienating
 Individualistic
Problems
 Too little
 Too late
 Too costly
 Too unrealistic
7/17/2015
SPEC Approach
 Strengths-based
 Primary Prevention
 Empowerment
 Community change
Opportunity
 Built to last
 Starts early and saves $$$
 Creates civic engagement
 Builds social movement
Prilleltensky
44
Time and place of interventions
Collective
THIS IS WHERE WE NEED TO BE
Quadrant IV
Examples:
Food banks, shelters for homeless
people, charities, prison industrial
complex
Quadrant I
Examples:
Community development, affordable
housing policy, recreational
opportunities, high quality schools
and accessible health services
Reactive
Proactive
Quadrant II
Quadrant III
Examples:
Skill building, emotional literacy,
fitness programs, personal
improvement plans, resistance to
peer pressure in drug and alcohol
use
Examples:
Crisis work, therapy, medications,
symptom containment, case
management
Individual
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE
Focus and engagement in interventions
Strength
THIS IS WHERE WE NEED TO BE
Quadrant I
Quadrant IV
Examples:
Voice and choice in celebrating and
building competencies, recognition of
personal and collective resilience
Examples:
Just say no! You can do it!
Cheerleading approaches, Make
nice approaches
Detachment
Empowerment
Quadrant II
Quadrant III
Examples:
Voice and choice in deficit reduction
approaches, participation in
decisions how to treat affective
disorders or physical disorders
Examples:
Labeling and diagnosis,
“patienthood” and clienthood,”
citizens in passive role
Deficit
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE
Context of Investigation
 Action research with 5 community based
organizations (CBOs) to promote Strengths,
Prevention, Empowerment, Community Change
 Three year study consisting of
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Training
Team work
Consultation
Professional development
Action research
Context of Investigation
 Organizations selected on basis of “readiness”
 Organizations consist of
 Major local funder (MF)
 Major provider of health services for poor (HS)
 Organization that promotes early interventions (EI)
 Local civic coalition (LC)
 Local human service (HS)
 Budgets range from $ 1 million to over $ 100
million
 Personnel ranges from 15 to 700
Context of Investigation
 Intervention components
1. Training



Team work
2.



5.
Transformation teams meet biweekly
Consultation
3.
4.
Each organization sends reps to 18 person class
3 hours biweekly
Lecture, discussion, application
A researcher assigned to each organization
Weekly or biweekly consultations
Professional development
Action research
Research Design
 Action Goal of overall project: Promote SPEC practices in
organizations to improve community well-being
 Research Goals of overall project:


Assess whether organizations become more aligned with
SPEC principles as a result of interventions
If so, how
 Data collection
 Quantitative and qualitative methods at baseline, year one,
and end of project
 Goal of present study: Examine organizational conditions
leading to SPEC based on qualitative data gathered
through interviews, focus groups, and field notes with
about 80 different participants in the five organizations
SPEC INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
Child and
Family
Strengths
Prevention
Empowerment
Community
Change
Organizations Community
Skills for SPEC
I VALUE IT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Inclusive host
Visionary
Asset seeker
Listener and sense maker
Unique solution finder
Evaluator
Implementer
Trendsetter
INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE SPEC
Training
T Team
Consultation
Action
Research
Professional
Development
ORGANIZATIONAL CONDITIONS
Climate
Resources
Support
Consciousness
OUTCOME: SPEC IN THE COMMUNITY
Strength based
approaches
Preventive
approaches
Empowering
approaches
Community change
approaches
Findings: Organizational Conditions
for Transformative Practice
Organizational Conditions for
Transformative Practice
Climate



Effective
 Enabling structures; good communication; timely completion of tasks; efficiency;
accountability and follow-through, etc.
 Most of the organizations noted at least some deficiency in this domain, including
duplication of efforts; inconsistent policies; and bureaucracy
Reflective
 Learning opportunities; organizational learning; asking “big questions”; challenging
old notions; evaluating practice, etc.
 Organizations vary on this dimension, with some presenting as highly reflective and
others describing an environment where there is insufficient trust to challenge old
notions and practices. (“you ain’t gonna rock the boat.”)
Affirmative
 Climate of acceptance and appreciation; employee strengths are highlighted and
utilized; voice and choice; sense of control; team work and conviviality
 Distinction made between voice and choice in a number of organizations where
empowerment is espoused as an organizational value, but not always practiced
well.
 In other organizations, staff empowerment is not even part of the organizational
radar.
Resources

Human





Financial





Adequate number of workers to meet demands; high skill level; capacity; dedication;
motivation; initiative
Largely described workers as caring, conscientious and committed to meeting the needs of
their constituents
Variable level of skill across organizations
Concern in some organizations that people are spread too thin due to a broad, overly ambitious
mission
Adequate financial resources to support positions; programs; etc.
A major barrier for most organizations in the current economic climate
Cuts in positions and lack of job security are a source of strain
For funding organizations, ongoing concern to make sure investments provide good return
Organizational




Appropriate organizational structures to meet vision and mission; adequate time, space, etc.
Most organizations described as committed to vision and mission
Some noted that rapid and poorly communicated policy changes lead to inconsistent practices
and poor PR with other agencies
In one case, solicitation of input from “boots on the ground” was seen as a necessary condition
for improved buy-in to vision and mission
Support and Legitimacy
 Leadership for SPEC
 Leadership provides legitimacy and support to SPEC principles and practices;
leader(s)“walk the talk” in their support of the vision and mission of the organization
 Organizations whose leaders are involved in all aspects of the SPEC training
(class, T-Team, etc.) experience greater legitimacy and support for SPEC practices
and principles
 Lower level of leaders involvement is associated with fewer SPEC practices
 Board support and legitimacy for SPEC
 Board of Directors provides legitimacy and support to SPEC principles and
practices ; board members“ walk the talk” in their support of the vision and mission
of the organization
 Some describe difficulties in dealing with board members who come from a
corporate background and unfamiliar with nonprofit
 Some board members advocate for special interest groups
 Funder support for SPEC
 Funders provide legitimacy and support to SPEC principles and practices; funders
“walk the talk” in their support of the vision and mission of the organization
 Some indication that funders may not always walk the talk, despite the theoretical
support of SPEC; some feel micromanaged by funders
Consciousness
 Justice
 Organization espouses a justice orientation; considers issues of fairness and
justice in understanding community problems and devising solutions
 Large variation between organizations. For some, themes of “economic justice”
and “social justice” are espoused and central to the organizational mission. For
others, justice is described as enabling access to services, regardless of client
background, legal status, etc.
 Power
 Organization is highly aware of power issues in the community; sensitive to how
differences in power affect voice, choice and wellbeing; considers power issues
when understanding problems and devising solutions
 Awareness and sensitivity to power issues in the community are at times
inconsistent with internal practices with employees.
 Ecology
 Organization espouses an ecological orientation; considers personal, organization,
and systemic factors in understanding problems and devising solutions
 A shared understanding that social and economic conditions are at the root of
people’s struggles does not always translate to more systemic organizational
practices
In every act, in every interaction, in every social action,
we hold each other accountable to promote
People’s dignity, safety, hope and growth
Relationships based on caring, compassion and respect
Societies based on justice, communion and equality
We are all better when these values are in balance
To put these values into action, we will:
Share our power
Be proactive and not just reactive
Transform the conditions that create problems for youth
Encourage youth and families to promote a caring community
Nurture visions that make the impossible, possible
We commit to uphold these values with
Youth and their Families
Our Employees
Our Organization
Our Community
This is a living document. We invite you to discuss it, to critique it, to live it