Sharing Power
One of the six parts of SHARES is ‘Empower’. While no one has the ability to ’empower’ anyone else per se, they do have the ability to share power. Society and our systems dramatically underestimates the harm of loss of power in people’s lives. Meanwhile, research is repeatedly telling us that loss of power can contribute significantly to increases in risk of suicide.
This page is intended to support people to dive more deeply into what power sharing can look like and to brainstorm and share ideas with others.
While some of the ideas below will apply more to some roles than others, we encourage you to think about all the ideas creatively and add to the list, too!
NOTE: Some items are direct ways to share power, while others are strategies to reduce barriers to sharing power.
Direct Shares
- Get good at saying you’re sorry
- Support people to make meaning of their own experiences
- Support people to select their own diagnosis (or to do so collaboratively with you)
- Support people to weigh the pros and cons of different possible diagnoses (e.g., which are least likely to lead to negative assumptions, which will help them get benefits or housing, etc.
- Call things what they are (e.g., Is inpatient hospitalization ‘treatment’ or ‘containment’?)
- Use non-clinical language that everyone can understand without explanation
- Explain acronyms and clinical language when it is used
- If you have more power/privilege, learn to take bigger risks
- Share your connections (introduce individuals with less access/social capital to people who might be able to open doors for them, etc.)
- Step back from power positions in ways that allow others with less power to step forward
- Support people to reclaim words and the power to define them
- Co-write notes with people receiving services
- Write notes like, “This person has requested that notes not be written about our interaction today”
- “Forget” to document certain things that could harm someone if it goes in their record
- Pretend you didn’t hear or see something
- Make sure someone knows your limits or any requirements to report things BEFORE they bump into them
- Introduce strategies like talking about their “friend” instead of about them
- Share financial and other resources when possible
- Be willing to bend the rules sometimes, even in small ways
- Be intentional about asking why things are the way they are (a great way to use your power if you’re new and otherwise don’t hold other types of power yet)
- Ask to see policies, guidelines, etc and share them with people receiving services
- Volunteer to compile policies, guidelines, etc to be shared with all people receiving services
- Be willing to take the blame sometimes
- Learn strategies for redirecting focus onto the person who is being talked about (If someone is asking you instead of that person, turn your eyes and body toward the person being ignored, etc.)
- Gather information about people, groups and places that have less limits than you and actively share them with others
- Be upfront about what you’re doing and why (e.g., If you have to do an assessment, explain why you’re doing it and what it means)
- Refuse to participate in meetings where people with the least power aren’t included/are being talked about
- Create opportunities to invite input from people receiving services or who otherwise get left out of the process
Breaking Barriers
- Name it when you see people taking advantage of their power to define and control what words means (e.g., If you see people accusing someone in the power down role of being ‘manipulative’, while also ‘manipulating’ the system themselves but calling it something else, name it!)
- Create spaces for family, friends, co-workers to move through grief and defensiveness that is serving as a barrier to change
- Practice saying ‘no’ together to systems, organizations, etc. so it’s harder to paint any one person as ‘the problem’
- Learn about your and other worker’s rights and protections so you and others aren’t always operating out of fear
- Collaborate with co-workers to strengthen your collective voice to push for change
- Challenge yourself and others to slow down and talk about why you think someone might be too ‘fragile’ to be a part of a conversation, especially if it’s about their own life
- Create opportunities to share power sharing strategies with people within and beyond your immediate group
- Share research on actual liability and other similar risks
- Share strategies for minimizing liability and other risks that would otherwise encourage more restrictive practices