NM

Kin 120 Lecture 5

Strengths Perspective Overview

  • Citation: Saleebey, D. (2013). The strengths perspective in social work practice (Sixth Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

  • Key Themes:

    • Strengths Perspective

    • Deficit-Based Approach vs Strengths-Based Approach

    • Fundamental Elements of the Strengths Perspective

    • Methods for Discovering Strengths

    • Core Principles of the Strengths Perspective

Deficit-Based Approach to Service Delivery

  • Main Purpose: Eradication of problems, such as disabilities.

  • Assessments:

    • Focused on identifying what is wrong with the individual.

    • Experts compile lists of problems, leading to suggested goals, interventions, therapies, and initiatives.

  • Focus Areas: Concentration on deficits, illness, stress, disability, and limited functioning (Anderson & Heyne, 2012).

  • Professional Role: Professionals are viewed as the experts in an individual's life; their skills are seen as the essential resources for achieving outcomes.

  • Model Used: The medical model predominates under this approach (Saleebey, 2006; Anderson & Heyne, 2012).

  • Review Questions (Based on Deficit/Medical Model):

    • Definition of Disability: Equated with being defective, inferior, or lacking.

    • Identity Perception: Individuals with disabilities perceived through the lens of personal tragedy and common deficits.

    • Terminology: Negative descriptors (e.g., deficits, problems).

    • Service Delivery Focus: Treatment based on deficits, problems, and characteristics.

Concerns with the Medical Model/Deficit Perspective

  • Impacts of Focusing on Problems:

    • Generates a negative outlook regarding:

    • The individual’s potential.

    • The individual’s environment.

    • The individual’s true capabilities.

  • Cycle of Devaluation: Emphasizing what is wrong may cause individuals to doubt their own abilities (Saleebey, 2013).

Strengths Perspective as an Alternative

  • Provides a contrary approach to the dominant Medical Model/Deficit-Based Approach to service delivery.

Introduction to Strengths Perspective

  • Overview: Requires a re-envisioning of individuals and communities.

    • Perspectives based on capacities, talents, competencies, possibilities, visions, values, and hopes.

    • Demands recognition of what individuals know and what they can do.

    • Necessitates mapping existing resources within the individual, family, and community (Saleebey, 2013).

Focus of the Strengths Perspective

  • Central Question: “What do people desire their lives to be like, and what resources and strengths do they possess or require to achieve this?” (Saleebey, 2009, p.12).

Understanding Strengths

  • Definition of Strengths: Almost any attribute can signify a strength:

    • Capacities, Assets, Resources: Can be used as strengths.

    • Personal Qualities, Traits, Virtues: Traits like humor, caring, creativity, loyalty, insight, independence, spirituality, and patience (Wolin & Wolin, 1994).

    • Knowledge: Acquired either intellectually/educationally or through lived experience.

    • Talents: Abilities in storytelling, motivational speaking, cooking, home repair, writing, blogging, carpentry, sewing, etc. (Saleebey, 2013).

Methods of Discovering Strengths

  • Listening to Stories: Important to identify interests, talents, and competencies beyond standard assessment protocols. Stories reveal signs of strength, interest, hopes, and visions (Saleebey, 2013).

  • Types of Questions to Discover Strengths:

    • Survival Questions: Enables acknowledgment of challenges and responses.

    • Examples:

      • "What enables you to face challenges?"

      • "What are your thoughts and feelings in face of uncertainties?"

    • Support Questions: Explore sources of understanding and support.

    • Examples:

      • "Who can you depend on?"

      • "Do you belong to groups that provide support?"

    • Exception Questions: Identify instances when issues are not present.

    • Example: "Describe a time things were going well."

    • Possibility Questions: Discuss aspirations and desires for life.

    • Examples:

      • "What do you want out of life?"

      • "What personal qualities aid you in achieving this?"

    • Esteem Questions: Determine positive affirmations from the support network.

    • Examples:

      • "What do people say about you?"

      • "What have you accomplished that brings you pride?"

    • Perspective Questions: Gain insight on the individual’s view of their situation.

    • Example: "How do you interpret your current situation?"

    • Change Questions: Discuss ideas for improving life satisfaction.

    • Example: "What aspirations do you have for change?"

    • Meaning Questions: Explore purpose in life.

    • Examples:

      • "What gives your life value?"

      • "Where did this meaning stem from?"

Centrality of Hope in Strengths Perspective

  • Core Idea: Hope is pivotal and involves connecting with an individual's visions and dreams.

    • Multi-Dimensional Nature of Hope:

    • We possess great potential, some latent and some fully realized.

    • Offers opportunities for choice, commitment, and action toward desired futures.

  • External Influences: Presence of individuals, policies, circumstances, and conventions can either foster or undermine hope.

  • Role of Service Providers: Professionals should strive to nurture hope and facilitate the individual's pursuit of the possible (Saleebey, 2013).

Strengths Perspective - Resources

  • Creating a Roster of Resources: Acknowledgment of resources inherently available within and around the individual, family, and community.

  • Examples of Resources: Community organizations, support groups, personal networks.

Summary of Key Ideas

  • Core Components: Strengths, Hopes, Resources.

  • Perspective on Problems: The strengths perspective does not dismiss real troubles; ignoring possible solutions is as erroneous as denying the existence of the problem (Saleebey, 2009).

Principles of the Strengths Perspective

  • Universal Affirmation of Strength: Every individual, group, family, and community possesses inherent strengths.

  • Trauma/Injury as Dual Opportunity: Struggles may yield pathways for growth and development.

  • Growth Potential: Never assume limits on individual, group, and community growth.

  • Collaborative Engagement: Engage clients as active collaborators rather than passive beneficiaries.

  • Resource Abundance in Context: Each environment harbors resources.

  • The Role of Care: Emphasizes interpersonal caring and contextual consideration.

  • Vision of Hope: The strengths perspective encapsulates the transformative power of hope within social relationships across various layers (Saleebey, 2013, p.21).

Comparative Analysis of Approaches

  • Therapeutic Recreation Adaptation: Adapted from "Paradigm Shifts: A Sea Change in Health and Human Services" by L. Anderson and L. Heyne (1999):

    • Deficits-Based Approach versus Strengths-Based Approach:

    • View of Disability:

      • Deficits-Based: The individual is labeled as the problem needing resolution.

      • Strengths-Based: Individuals with disabilities are recognized as having aspirations and dreams that may require assistance to achieve.

    • Nature of Professional Relationship:

      • Deficits-Based: Characterized by distance and power imbalance.

      • Strengths-Based: Reflects collaboration, equality, and mutual respect.

    • Consideration of Context:

      • Deficits-Based: Context disregarded; over-simplification of issues.

      • Strengths-Based: Acknowledges that context can influence the experience of disability dramatically.

    • Focus of Solution:

      • Deficits-Based: Emphasis on eliminating problems.

      • Strengths-Based: Service delivery centered around the individual’s hopes and dreams, leading toward solutions.

Strengths Perspective Case Study: Hilary

  • Background: Hilary felt pain at age 11 and was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy by age 15, leading to quadriplegia. Despite needing assistance, she expressed a deep desire to remain active.

  • Challenges Faced:

    • Hilary experienced severe isolation, reflecting on a time when she could not leave her house for three months. She contemplated euthanasia to escape her reality.

  • Journey towards Strength:

    • Encouraged by friends, she sought new activities and discovered a passion for sailing.

    • Sailing alleviated her pain, providing an enjoyable distraction, and she increased her aspirations towards participation in sport.

    • Utilizes adaptive tools like a wheelchair and a sip-and-puff movement system to navigate sailing.

  • Goals: Hilary dreams of sailing solo around the British Isles and ultimately across the Atlantic Ocean, supported by others while developing self-capacity.

Activity and Upcoming Class Outline

  • Childhood Activities: Reflect on games enjoyed or not in sports and physical education.