By Andy Meakin, Director, VOICES   This may be an apocryphal story, I can’t remember where I heard it, but it illustrates a point… A doctor was about to do a first shift in charge of a busy A&E department and expressed some anxiety to their supervisor.  Their supervising consultant offered some coaching through the following advice: “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, under pressure, so you don’t know where to turn, or what to do, if you feel lost and alone.  Don’t hesitate to cope.” The message was that struggle is normal, rely on your training and skills, rely on your network of colleagues, overcome problems, grow, and be ‘resilient’.   Promoting resilience has become an inescapable message of public dialogue on hardship and wellbeing.  I think we need to re-examine this refrain.   The implication of the resilience narrative – for some – is that the solution to hardship and poverty is found in the individual.  And, that hardship and poverty, as well as its consequences for physical and mental wellbeing, is the result of ‘lifestyle choices’. Our popular dialogue on the subject tends to organise – consciously or otherwise – into categories of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor.  Sadly, we sometimes see these judgements documented in eligibility criteria that… Continue Reading

By Steve Barkess, Community Development Coordinator, VOICES   My adventure is soon to begin… In a few days’ time I will be traveling to Seattle to take part in the transatlantic exchange to learn about how they support people who are homeless and take steps to tackle this as a wider issue. My focus will be on the lived experience aspect of this, as this I think, would be a good place to start. I suppose my research topic is quite specific as I am sure everyone who has been successful in being selected for the exchange is. Whilst doing my research on how people are supported in the US it became apparent that a lived experience and community approach is paramount for much of the support offered to individuals. I was also really interested in the dedicated approaches to peer specialist role within the support sector and the way this is managed. So why did I focus on lived experience? I have a strong belief that people with lived experience should be employed within services at all levels. In the UK it is not uncommon that people with lived experience are turned down for roles within services due to lack of experience and knowledge of… Continue Reading