Landscapes of Self-Determination: Power, Culture and EquityLandscapes of Self-Determination: Power, Culture and Equity

Part Two: The Mental Health Promotion Practitioner as an Agent of Self-Determination

Presented by Dr Lewis Williams, Director, Prairie Region Health Promotion Research CentreAugust 16, 2005

Mental Health Promotion: Identity, Power & Culture Summer School 2005

SourceSource

• This presentation is based on This presentation is based on Lewis Williams’ PhD research, Lewis Williams’ PhD research, referenced on the last slide.referenced on the last slide.

Using Your Power Transformatively:Knowing Your Own Practice TerrainUsing Your Power Transformatively:Knowing Your Own Practice Terrain

• In what ways do key cultural, professional and organizational forms of power shape my practice?

• How might I exercise agency within my own practice – i.e. the use of cultural, professional and organizational power in ways that increase self-determination and mental well-being?

The Transformative Use of Power by the PractitionerThe Transformative Use of Power by the Practitioner

• The transformative use of power can be thought of as those who have access to more power, particularly institutional forms, using it in ways to increase the power and choices of those who have less access to power.

• Practitioners have many opportunities to use their power this way.

Cultural Power: What Practitioners SayCultural Power: What Practitioners Say

• The challenges of working across different identity and cultural locations

• Drawing on the experience of marginal identities

Cultural Power: Reflective QuestionsCultural Power: Reflective Questions

• How do my cultural identities and life experiences shape my values and perceptions of the world and people within it?

• What forms of power do I have access to and how do these influence the expression of my own cultural identities within my work?

• How do these power-culture dynamics influence my ability to work with people, particularly those of different cultural identities in ways that increase self-determination and mental wellbeing?

Professional Power: What Practitioner SayProfessional Power: What Practitioner Say

• Unconsciously wearing your professional power

• The transformative use of professional power and the reflective contract

Professional Power: Reflective QuestionsProfessional Power: Reflective Questions

• How does my professional training conceptualize my role with people I work with?

• What are the power relations inherent in my professional role?

• How might I exercise my professional power to facilitate increased self-determination and mental well-being?

Organizational Power: What Practitioners SayOrganizational Power: What Practitioners Say

• Between Organization and community: dual accountability

• Power-culture and the health promoter as translator from multiple and shifting positions

The MPH Practitioner’s Agency TerrainThe MPH Practitioner’s Agency Terrain

External Agency Terrain(Institutional context)

Knowledge systemsWestern/IndigenousFeminist, critical

Public policiesTreatment, preventionPromotion, development

Institutional powerCultural and power base of organization

Professional systemsWhich professional systems predominate

Internal Agency Terrain(MHP practitioner)

ConsciousnessKnowledge, critical thinking, spontaneity & intuition

IdentitySense of self & herstory/history, self-esteem, sense of belonging

CulturesPractitioners world views & cultural affiliations

Professional powerProfessional knowledge and credentials

Institutional status and roleRole and position within organization

External Agency Terrain (Community context)

GlobalizationGlobal movement of capital & goods. Globalization of culture via print & electronic media

Socio-cultural identities & statuses of groupsPersonal capacities, social, cultural identities & statuses

Mental health capacitiesAccess to employment, income, housing, culture, language, land, healthcare, etc

MHP practice contextLocale of interactions and associated rules/norms

Social and organizational networksDegree of social cohesion, strength of horizontal & vertical networks

Dominant institutions & social structuresCultural systems transmitted & degree of power base

Williams, L. (2005).

Organizational PowerOrganizational Power

• Which cultural norms and values do the policies and practices of the organization I work for represent?

• How does the organization understand mental health promotion work?

• What are the opportunities and challenges inside and outside the organization for implementing MHP practice and policy?

What This Means for MHP Practice….Good practice criteriaWhat This Means for MHP Practice….Good practice criteria

• Taking account of cultural, professional and organizational power you have access to

• Constructs / theory behind practice• Face Validity• Transformative use of power

ReferencesReferences

• Williams, L. (2005). The Mental Health Promotion Practitioner as an agent of self-determination: Reflections on Practice. Paper prepared for the Prairie Region Health Promotion Research Centre Summer School, University of Saskatchewan.

• Williams, L. (2001). Identity, culture and power: Frameworks for Self-determination of Communities at the Margins. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Massey University: Auckland.