Title: THE WELL BEING OF THE MISSIONARY UNDERSTANDING THE MISSIONARYINENVIRONMENT
1THE WELL BEING OF THE MISSIONARYUNDERSTANDING
THE MISSIONARY-IN-ENVIRONMENT
- Timothy A. Boyd Psy.D. CSWProfessor of Social
Work and PsychologyRoberts Wesleyan College
2An Ecological Approach
- An ecological approach the challenge is to
understand the person-in-environment
(missionary-in-environment) -
- Ecological theory explores all 3 of the systems
that encompass a persons life
3An Ecological Approach Cont.
- Microsystem the intrapsychic world and
relationships with those in the immediate setting
(family)
4An Ecological Approach Cont.
- Mesosystem the interactions with major settings
and systems in an individuals life (team Field
Immediate organization Sending churches)
5An Ecological Approach Cont.
- Macrosystem the broader cultural and subcultural
patterns and structures (denomination Broader
organizational systems Political and legal
systems)
6We must move beyond the individual, family, and
agency approaches to develop a more systematic,
global, and corporate approach to providing
member care. We must develop a macro-model of
member care. Kelly ODonnell
7When we visit a house or a building and see
several rooms, only the mind can connect their
simultaneous existence by some sort of inner
imagery. So it is with living systems in dynamic
interaction. Only by some inner imagery, some
image of the senses, like the hearing of an
orchestracan we capture the idea of living
systems! Thus living systems are like a moving
hologram.., constantly shifting planes and
fields, there, but not there. The only
comprehension we can have of living, human
systems is metaphoric, analogic, organismic,
synesthetic. Bunny Dahl From the Inside Out
and Other Metaphors
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- The inter-connections between systems have a
significant impact on the individual missionarys
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- 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 missionarys well
being, their efforts to adapt and grow, and their
effectiveness in overall functioning
(personal/family/job).
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- 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.
13Some 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.
14Basic 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- 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.
16Organizational 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- 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- Is there a goodness-of-fit between what the
network is capable and willing to provide and
what the clients - needs and desires are?
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.
20Empowering Missionaries
- How can we empower the missionary
- (help them define their world, problems,
adaptations, and strengths to create - more satisfying lives)?
21Empowering 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)
22Empowering 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).
23Three 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- What are the persons 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- 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 networks value
system (may be a deterrent to getting help).
26- Loosely knit networks may be unaware of members
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- 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- 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- 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- 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- 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.
32Guidelines 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
33Guidelines for Strengths Assessment Cont.
- Make assessment of strengths multi-dimensional
- Move toward assessment of personal and
environmental strengths - Give preeminence to clients understanding of the
facts - Discover what client wants
- Charles Cowger Social Work,Vol. 39, No. 3, May
1994)
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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- 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
missionarys personal resources and energy.
37Principles of Strengths Assessment
- Principles for a Holistic, Developmentally-Oriente
d, 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.
38Principles 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.
39Principles 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?
40Principles 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- 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- 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).
43Force 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.
44Psychosocial Risk Factors
- Resiliency Assessment
- Psychosocial Risk Factors Protective Factors
- Psychosocial Risk Factors
- identifying potential sources of risk
45Psychosocial 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.
46Psychosocial 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.
47Psychosocial 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?
48Psychosocial Risk Factors Cont.
- A key factor in ones 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).
49Psychosocial 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.
50Psychosocial 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.
51Protective Factors
- Most successful prevention programs dont 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.
52Protective Factors
- Competence building is a primary prevention
strategy and includes things like - Interpersonal skills
- Cognitive skills
53Protective 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).
54Protective Factors Cont.
- Social Support.
- Significant individuals within the missionarys
social network can be utilized as change agents
(especially for change maintenance). - BAROMETER
- Stress HighModerateLow
- Social Support HighModerateLow
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- 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- 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- Social Networks Demonstrate 4 types of support
- Instrumental (goods and services)
- Emotional (nurture, empathy, encouragement)
- Informational (advice, feedback)
- Appraisal (information needed to
- self-evaluate)
60Social 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
61How 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.