Season 2 Episode 5: Accessibility

Intentional Partnerships

Today on Intentional Partnerships, we discuss how professional family counselors can create an environment where their help feels more accessible to families in need of information. We move past conventional understandings of accessibility hindrances such as a family not having the time or means to get to sessions, or their children being in daycare. We learn that a family’s ability to access professional help can also be jeopardized by the way they respond to counselor strategies, institutional procedures, and even decor and layout of a help center. We also discover that all families perceive these variables differently. Ultimately, what is at stake is the prospect of creating an environment of trust where information can be shared reciprocally by the professional and the family. This enables the shared information to have the maximum positive impact on both parties and sometimes it is simply about imagining oneself in a family’s shoes. For an incredibly insightful conversation, don’t miss out on today’s episode!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How issues of accessibility relate to a family’s ability to engage with a professional.
• Accessibility is about more than conventional issues of time, transportation and childcare.
• The psychological and emotional aspect to accessibility: importance of creating an environment of trust.
• Architecture, decoration, and customer service in a help center can make an experience feel less institutionalized and more welcoming.
• Accessibility means building trust, which leads to reciprocal benefit for counselors and families.
• Why professionals shouldn’t set their boundaries based on the “1%”, or the most challenging families.
• Understanding the power dynamic between a professional and a family.
• Learning how to effectively break down the power dynamic to build a space for information to flow.
• The benefits of between different modalities to account for the subjective experiences people have with so-called ‘welcoming environments’.
• Why your choice of language as a professional can make a family feel alienated.
• The importance of professionals reassessing their strategies: better strategies lead to healthier children.

Tweetables:

“When we have institutional procedures, we want them to be smooth, but nothing is welcoming about a procedure.” — @TheJMichaelHall [0:10:33]

“Sometimes we get scared as professionals that if we have too much familiarity we won’t be effective, and I don’t think that’s true.” — @TheJMichaelHall [0:13:25]

“When we talk about emotional and psychological aspects of accessibility, it’s all about perception.” — @LindseyForton [0:19:15]

“You have to dig deep sometimes to figure out where the points of the barrier to accessibility are for your family, because they are not always obvious.” — @LindseyForton [0:29:22]

“As professionals, we need to take a step back and say, ‘When I put myself in the family’s shoes, what would stop me from coming in? What would stop me from getting access to this information?’” — @LindseyForton [0:29:45]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

J Michael Hall

Michael on Twitter

Lindsey Shah

Lindsey on Twitter

Strong Fathers Strong Families