Assets based approach to service innovation

Editor's Notes

• #2: The asset approach has found its way into reports, guidance and research on the future of public health, social care and wellbeing.
• #3: A purely deficit based approach, targeted on the needs of the ‘worst’, has demonstrably not reduced the social gradient in health; health inequalities remain stubborn and in most areas the gap is growing. assets-based approaches value the capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in individuals and communities. ‘Asset thinking’ challenges the predominant framing of health as the prevention of illness and injury, instead, looking at it as the promotion of wellness. It is possible to ‘get ill better’ because good wellbeing tends to mean that people seek help earlier and recover quicker. In Scotland a large focus of policy is around asking services to consider how they integrate the persons strengths into overall care and treatment. The identification of strengths and abilities can promote hope, an essential part of recovery. At the same time it can promote resilience and prepare people to better deal with periods of difficulty. A focus on strengths can encourage positive relationships where both parties are aware of what they can do, rather than concentrating on deficits. Asset based working is not an alternative to properly funded public services. It challenges how those services are designed and delivered and requires a recasting of the relationship between commissioners, providers, service users and communities.
• #4: Goal orientation : Strengths-based practice is goal oriented. The central and most crucial element of any approach is the extent to which people themselves set goals they would like to achieve in their lives. Strengths assessment : The primary focus is not on problems or deficits, and the individual is supported to recognise the inherent resources they have at their disposal which they can use to counteract any difficulty or condition. Resources from the environment : Strengths proponents believe that in every environment there are individuals, associations, groups and institutions who have something to give, that others may find useful, and that it may be the practitioner’s role to enable links to these resources. Explicit methods are used for identifying client and environmental strengths for goal attainment : These methods will be different for each of the strengths-based approaches. For example, in solution-focused therapy clients will be assisted to set goals before the identification of strengths, whilst in strengths-based case management, individuals will go through a specific ‘strengths assessment’. The relationship is hope-inducing : A strengths-based approach aims to increase the hopefulness of the client. Further, hope can be realised through strengthened relationships with people, communities and culture. Meaningful choice : Strengths proponents highlight a collaborative stance where people are experts in their own lives and the practitioner’s role is to increase and explain choices and encourage people to make their own decisions and informed choices.
• #5: Improving social connections By building on the skills of local people, the power of local associations and the supportive functions of local institutions and services, strengths-based community development approaches draw upon existing strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities. Researchers have found that by encouraging pride in achievements and a realisation of what people have to contribute, communities generate increased confidence in their ability to be producers not recipients of development (Foot and Hopkins, 2010). Supporting whole person approaches Working to enhance an individual’s awareness and understanding of their own strengths and capabilities has been shown to promote an increased sense of well-being (Park and Peterson, 2009). Furthermore, there is evidence that the use of personal narratives adds to the process of a positive re-framing of personal identity for people who use mental health services (Altenberger and Mackay, 2006).
• #6: Assets based and deficit based approaches take policies and services down radically different routes, radically different ways of thinking and going about the business Christie and others link many of our current intractable problems in policies and services which define people by what they can’t do or their problems, treat them as passive recipients incapable of and not to be trusted with determining their own lives and so further disempowering and alienating them. However, doing things to people is ineffective and resource intensive. Structural inequalities reinforce the powerlessness and hopelessness and create barriers to self fulfillment and realisation of assets. A lack of assets creates and sustains transient and troubled communities which are disconnected, powerless and passive. Lacking connections, self worth and empathy, they are riven by prejudice, intolerance. Sectarianism, anti social behavior, hate crimes and disrespect thrive in weak and threatened communities and on poverty and inequality.
• #7: PA - Participatory appraisal (PA) is a methodology that creates a cycle of research, information collection, reflection, learning and collective action – LIKE ACTION RESEARCH AI – a process for valuing and drawing out the strengths and successes in the history of a group, community or organisation. Focuses on the positive – includes stortytelling, world café and open space technology approaches ABCD – It draws on AI, social capital and collaorative community development models