THE WELL BEING OF THE MISSIONARY UNDERSTANDING THE MISSIONARY-IN-ENVIRONMENT

1. 1 THE WELL BEING OF THE MISSIONARYUNDERSTANDING THE MISSIONARY-IN-ENVIRONMENT Timothy A. Boyd Psy.D.; CSWProfessor of Social Work and PsychologyRoberts Wesleyan College

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3. 3 An Ecological Approach Cont. Microsystem: the intrapsychic world and relationships with those in the immediate setting (family)

4. 4 An Ecological Approach Cont. Mesosystem: the interactions with major settings and systems in an individual�s life (team; Field; Immediate organization; Sending churches)

5. 5 An Ecological Approach Cont. Macrosystem: the broader cultural and subcultural patterns and structures (denomination; Broader organizational systems; Political and legal systems)

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8. 8 Many systems are involved in the life of the missionary. We need to visit the many �rooms� of their life in order holistically and effectively plan with them. We need to assess the �goodness-of-fit� between the missionary and their environmental context.

9. 9 The inter-connections between systems have a significant impact on the individual missionary�s well-being, functioning, and development. Our sense of self is dependent in part on our involvement with others. When we view the individual in a context we look at how change might occur not just in an individual but also in their social system.

10. 10 We look not only at the personality of the individual but also at the �personalities� of their family systems, team systems, church systems, field systems, and organizational systems (ethos, cultures, rules, boundaries, functioning). These influences are reciprocal (for example the experiences at home influence the team and the team influences the home life). The involvement of the broader organization is essential to facilitate the missionary�s well being, their efforts to adapt and grow, and their effectiveness in overall functioning (personal/family/job).

11. 11 The challenge to those of us who are member care/mental health specialists is to get out of our limiting perspectives and to learn about the contexts that people live in. We must alter our view about how help is delivered. Our assessments need (within reason) to gather data from as many sources as possible. This data should not just be individually-focused (intrapsychic), but also systemic (how the individual relates to their environment and how the environment relates to them).

12. 12 Not only is it important that our assessments are ecological but we can use this broader (holistic) perspective to shape maximally effective interventions. Ecological assessments lead to ecological interventions. These kinds of interventions have a broader impact on the person. These kinds of interventions also require organizational responsiveness. They may result in a implied mandate for organizational change.

13. 13 Some Basic Assumptions Missionaries need to be at the center of their own growth and development. Mission organizations need to provide resources and support to help maintain the well-being of their people. Both are true, yet the total responsibility does not lie with either.

14. 14 Basic Assumptions Cont. Who, then, is responsible for what? �What are the expectations of this next generation that is entering missions? Do they expect their organization to provide certain ingredients, or environments? What happens to their morale or to their functioning when these conditions are not met?

15. 15 If you talk to most mission executives about this issue you will not get any great conflict regarding their desire that their missionaries are contented, healthy, and effective. Where you may get the greatest difference is in what those characteristics might look like, how to measure them, and how to Implement them. This Combination is the essence Of member care.

16. 16 Organizational Goals There are generally 2 kinds of organizational goals: Production Goals: What is the manifest purpose of this organization? What are we trying to accomplish? Satisfaction Goals: How satisfying is the work to the members (which is likely more important than we acknowledge at times). Both are important, but it may be easy for the organization to place a premium on the production goals.

17. 17 Prevention is value driven. Because it utilizes significant resources of the organization it must be prioritized in order to be resourced. The pool of resources is always limited. The manner in which the organization goes about addressing this issue says volumes about organizational ethos. This issue may surface ideological competitions. We often must confront our history to create new models. We cannot bypass these questions.

18. 18 Is there a goodness-of-fit between what the network is capable and willing to provide and what the client�s needs and desires are?

19. 19 Missionaries are in the ongoing process of adapting. The adaptive capacity of people can be limited by how the organization responds to (blocks or facilitates) access to resources. Problems require adaptation on the part of both the individual and their organization. This �tension� creates the opportunity to make both short-term and long-term changes. This is a challenge of growth for both.

20. 20 How can we empower the missionary (help them define their world, problems, adaptations, and strengths to create more satisfying lives)?

21. 21 Empowering Missionaries In order to empower we need a client/professional partnership with: As little intrusion as possible Clear limits of confidentiality A direct and honest explanation of our mandate Communication of possible consequences of noncompliance (including a definition of noncompliance)

22. 22 Empowering Missionaries Cont. In order to institute change not only must the person develop new competencies, but the social system must also support their exercise of them. One of our tasks is to mobilize community resources to influence the quality of life of the persons in the community. We cannot do one-time/forever effective interventions (it is an ongoing process).

23. 23 Three Factors in Building Healthy Community Power to generate alternatives and opportunities Knowledge of where and how to obtain resources of all kinds Self-esteem in the form of pride, motivation, and optimism Iscoe (Community Psychology and the Competent Community, 1974

24. 24 What are the person�s help-seeking behaviors? (cultural issues enter in here). Are their factors that would lead a person to believe that their help seeking may have negative impact? When there is a negative social comparison a sense of inferiority and failure may surface.

25. 25 What is the organizational ethos regarding people with problems�.those with significant needs? Is there a cultural emphasis on individualism and self-reliance? The kinds of life stressors that people may experience may conflict with the network�s value system (may be a deterrent to getting help).

26. 26 Loosely knit networks may be unaware of member�s stress (invisibility). Authority may be too flexible and when this happens individuals may have inappropriate discretionary power with minimal accountability. The individual can then be vulnerable to whims, prejudices, and narrow interpretations.

27. 27 Rigid authority structures reward conformity, discourage innovation, block horizontal and vertical communication. Layers of authority may be numerous. Individuals can become held hostage to bureaucratic structures. When resources are stretched the organization may fear taking on more responsibility.

28. 28 If we give people more choices will the organization be positively effected? It can feel like a loss of power to some. Organizations can experience criticism as being �ego-dystonic�, just as individuals do. Our feedback can be difficult to understand, to assimilate and to utilize.

29. 29 There is an unfortunate tendency on the part of many organizations to blame the individual when things �go wrong�, and the locus of the problem is seen as residing in the individual. Many individuals will blame themselves too, but individuals also engage in the �blame game� and place the onus or responsibility on the organization when things go �bad�.

30. 30 It is easy as a counselor who has been working in an assessment and/or consultation role with individual missionaries in distress to �over-identify� with the individual or to �under-identify� with the organization. An important question to keep asking ourselves is �Who is my client�? Our goal must be two-pronged: to help both the individual as well as the organization. Our job is to be bridge-builders.

31. 31 Lack of linkages (effective referral and services) can make a person feel lost. What are the kinds of assessments, then, are beneficial to both the individual missionary and the larger organization? We tend to focus a great deal on the pathology end of the continuum and neglect the strengths end.

32. 32 Guidelines for Strengths Assessment Assess- do not diagnose Avoid cause-effect thinking Avoid blame Reach mutual agreement on the assessment Make assessment a joint activity Use language client can understand Use assessment to discover uniqueness

33. 33 Guidelines for Strengths Assessment Cont. Make assessment of strengths multi-dimensional Move toward assessment of personal and environmental strengths Give preeminence to client�s understanding of the facts Discover what client wants Charles Cowger: Social Work,Vol. 39, No. 3, May 1994)

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35. 35 �At the very least, the strengths perspective obligates workers to understand that, however downtrodden and sick, individuals have survived (and in some cases even thrived). They have taken steps, summoned up resources, and coped. We need to know what they have done, how they have done it, what resources (inner and outer) were available in their struggle to surmount their troubles. People are always working on their situations, even if just deciding to be resigned to them; as helpers we must tap into that work, elucidate it, find and build on its possibilities (Saleeby, 1992).�

36. 36 Recent research (Families in Society; Jan-Feb. 98) found that practitioners who emphasized personal deficits of the client were more likely to select a counseling-oriented case plan and practitioners who emphasize client strengths were more likely to choose a care plan that focused on assisting the client with additional services. When we use a strengths perspective �new and often unexpected patterns and resources� open up. Our job is to help foster client links to the contexts where their strengths can flourish. This kind of approach is designed to mobilize the missionary�s personal resources and energy.

37. 37 Principles of Strengths Assessment Principles for a Holistic, Developmentally-Oriented, Comprehensive, and Strengths-affirming Assessments for Missionaries. Assessment is a process, not just something that is done once and for all. Most problems have complex etiologies (they are affected by many different variables over time), so we have to be multi-faceted in our approaches.

38. 38 Principles of Strengths Assessment Cont. Assess both the individual and their role functioning as well as the environment and its potential impact on the missionary. There is no Holy Spirit Scale on the MMPI. Most of our measures are not very good at measuring movement and growth. We are often looking at a half-finished painting and drawing conclusions.

39. 39 Principles of Strengths Assessment Cont. Include different kinds of measures that highlight the adaptiveness, creativity, and strengths of the missionary. Do effective cross-cultural communication (translate terms and concepts from our profession into language that a mission executive and/or missionary can understand). Will our insights and conclusions be communicated in a way that both can assimilate and utilize?

40. 40 Principles of Strengths Assessment Cont. The person being assessed needs to have some �voice� in the finished product. Our assessments need to build bridges from assessment to intervention. We tend to be much more proficient in assessing than we are in developing intervention strategies.

41. 41 Social service agencies are being challenged more and more to provide outcome measurement, and to do it in a variety of forms. Mission organizations (and mental health consultants) would be wise to carry out exit interviews and to do follow-ups as a way of doing outcome measurement.

42. 42 Is what we thought was effective really effective (or vice versa)? Whose voice is not being heard? What would it look like to do our missionary assessments in a fashion that would equip both the individual missionary and their organization with a measure of potential resiliency? Life planning can be universal (everybody in the organization does it) or targeted (those who are going through times of stress and transition or those who are having problems).

43. 43 Force Field Analysis Help client brainstorm all the restraining forces (persons, places, and things) that might make them fail to follow through on an action. Help them list all the forces that might help them persevere. Underline the forces in each list which are most critical in respect to carrying out the action plan. Goal is to increase facilitating forces and decrease restraining forces. Identify coping strategies or mobilization strategies.

44. 44 Psychosocial Risk Factors Resiliency Assessment = Psychosocial Risk Factors + Protective Factors Psychosocial Risk Factors: identifying potential sources of risk

45. 45 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. Who is at risk? We all are. Risk and protective factors are complex (all factors are not of equal importance). Most problems are associated with more than one risk factor and most risk factors are associated with more than one problem.

46. 46 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. Risk is a function of events and circumstances as well as people. People can become in chains of events and functioning (can be moving in higher risk directions or into adaptive directions). We try to identify the vulnerable group (look at targeted risks, the problem factors, and the expected outcomes). Comprehensive Readiness For Ministry Profile.

47. 47 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. There are two basic risk factors: predisposing and precipitating. Predisposing tend to be more genetic and developmental in nature. Precipitating factors are more proximal (triggers). Do we focus more on predisposing than proximal?

48. 48 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. A key factor in one�s vulnerability relates to when one experienced the stressors (usually, early onset wounding experiences cause one to be more vulnerable). We are often dealing with the phenomena of critical mass (thresholds and cumulative risk exposure).

49. 49 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. One can pinpoint an individual about to enter a period of heightened risk. Transitions bring change in status and new role demands. The exit from desired social status is a more potent stressor than entry into new status. The timing of the transition and life event effects our perceptions.

50. 50 Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont. We have to take into account recent and future stressors when planning (stressors change over the developmental life cycle). We seek to help people through these life transitions (to figure them out) so their adaptive capacities and strengths are supported and strengthened and environmental responsiveness is increased.

51. 51 Protective Factors Most successful prevention programs don�t just attempt to teach people new skills and behaviors but also to alter their life trajectories (which requires changes in their life context). It is important to focus on the pressure points (when stressful events occur) and to create and position resources to help reduce vulnerability.

52. 52 Protective Factors Competence building is a primary prevention strategy and includes things like Interpersonal skills Cognitive skills

53. 53 Protective Factors Cont. Provide skills training with booster sessions. Give people training in how to apply and rehearse those skills in relevant situations. Will skills learned in a low state of arousal work in a state of high arousal? (add stress factors to role-plays).

54. 54 Protective Factors Cont. Social Support. Significant individuals within the missionary�s social network can be utilized as change agents (especially for change maintenance). BAROMETER Stress High�Moderate�Low Social Support High�Moderate�Low

55. 55 Clear evidence in recent research showing the link between social support and physical well-being. Ca. study showed that those who were least connected socially were twice as likely to die as those with the strongest social ties. Other studies show that once illness strikes social support affects our chances of staying alive. A good marriage offers significant health benefits (and marital conflict is corrosive on health).

56. 56 Classic experiments by Levine at Stanford with monkeys subjected to stress (shock) paired with a flashing light. When light was flashed if the test monkey had another monkey for company the amount of blood cortisol was half as great. If monkey had 5 companions showed no increase in blood cortisol.

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58. 58 Network size has the strongest correlation of happiness for men Number of social encounters has strongest correlation of happiness for women Normal persons have about 25 ties in their primary network Schizophrenic populations have around 8-12, with low reciprocity and low affect When there is low diversity of support (such as reliance on a spouse) persons are vulnerable Stigmas will precipitate network deterioration

59. 59 Social Networks: Demonstrate 4 types of support Instrumental (goods and services) Emotional (nurture, empathy, encouragement) Informational (advice, feedback) Appraisal (information needed to self-evaluate)

60. 60 Social Network Map Level 1 (Inner circle): those who you have the most contact, and the most intense investments Level 2: those you value highly and interact with frequently Level 3: those who are important but you contact less frequently, or those you contact frequently but are important Level 4: those who are known but not as important Level 5: those who are known about or are linked with a significant other

61. 61 How can we implement change? First order change: Change a portion of the system Second order change: change the system itself The creation of something new implies some sort of criticism of the old. �It is best to work toward an attitude of mutual cooperation (This problem affects us all). It is vital to know and to develop rapport with the gatekeepers.