The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about wellness in the 5th century BC. Aristotle presented well-being as eudemonia or happiness (Garfield, 2012). The Golden Mean or living moderately provided a key guideline for achieving this well-being or wellness. Today, helping approaches such as positive psychology and counseling use the concept of wellness to plan and implement interventions (Myers & Sweeney, 2005; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The concept of wellness, according to Myers, Sweeney, and Witmer (1995), is a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being, in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated by the individual to live life more fully within the human and natural community. Ideally, it is the optimum state of health and well-being that each individual is capable of achieving. (p. 252)
The indivisible self represents a wellness model helpful to understanding clients. It is based upon a holistic and strengths-based approach. Myers and Sweeney (2005) developed an assessment tool to measure individual wellness. For the purposes of this text, we present the concepts that explain their wellness model. The model incorporates three levels of factors to describe the many ways individuals exhibit well-being. The mid-level includes five factors that describe important aspects of human life (Myers & Sweeney, 2005).
The Creative Self.
The creative self helps each of us define our unique place or perspective. This uniqueness becomes obvious as we relate to others and as we describe our personal experiences. Five factors, of thinking, emotions, control, work, and positive humor, comprise the Creative Self. This aspect of wellness represents the interrelationship between emotions, physical health, and cognition. In addition, a sense of control over one’s life; humor; emotional, cognitive, and physical expression allowing us to retain a positive orientation under adversity; and work provide meaning to individual lives. The Coping Self. Leisure, stress management, self-worth, and realistic beliefs comprise the coping self. The primary focus of the coping self is to help individuals survive, and in fact thrive, during and through life’s challenges. The theorists view leisure as a creative outlet for coping, while a sense of self-worth and assuming realistic beliefs provide a cognitive orientation for mastering difficult situations. Finally, stress management, or handling of life’s problems, provides the foundation for positive growth and development. The Social Self. Myers and Sweeney (2005) characterize the social self as relationships and connections with friends and family. Hence, friendship and love are the factors that enhance the value of life and longevity. These two factors counter feelings of alienation, isolation, and separation from others, while providing well-being over the life span. The Essential Self. The focus of the essential self centers around the search for meaning(s) for individual lives and includes present contributions and legacy. It encompasses meaning. Factors associated with the essential self are spirituality, gender identity, cultural identity, and self-care. While spirituality represents the search for meaning, gender and cultural identity affect the worldview and an individual’s perceptions of his or her place. Self-care includes an active commitment to wellness and well-being and recognizes individual responsibility in making positive choices to achieve meaning. The Physical Self. For individuals to reach wellness, the physical aspects of the human body need good nutrition and exercise. Both of these factors support present good health and longevity. Next, let’s look at an additional way to look at client strengths.
204:
Defining the strengths of clients is an important consideration and is included in assessing the nature of problems. In human services, client strengths refer to the positive characteristics, abilities, and experiences of the client. It is important to understand the nature of the strengths that clients have. This information, paired with an identification of problems they are experiencing, provides the helper with information that can help the client grow and change. The concept of building on strengths can help clients approach their problem areas by using their past successes.
Clients come to the helper with strengths. These represent the activities, characteristics, and achievements of the individuals, families, or communities who need help and support. Usually, it takes the professional time to help clients identify past successful behaviors and situations; once identified, the clients can be more hopeful about solving their current problems.
Another positive focus of identifying strengths is asking the clients to take a new perspective on their difficulties. Although it is important to ask, “What brings you here today?” or “Tell me about your current situation,” the conversation expands as clients have the opportunity to recall how they have solved problems in the past and what successes they have had at home, at school, in relationships, and at work. Helping clients set an agenda that builds on successes establishes a positive tone to the helping relationship and the work to be done.
There are several ways to apply the indivisible self model of wellness as a way to view individuals and their strengths. Before we describe how to use the wellness and strengths approach to describe the nature of the problems the homeless face, let’s look at the prevalence and characteristics of this population. Accurate statistics describing the homeless are difficult to obtain; the very nature of the problem makes counting difficult. In many cases, homelessness is a temporary circumstance rather than a permanent condition. On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were homeless, that is, sleeping outside, in emergency shelters, or transitional housing (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016).
People are homeless for any number of reasons. Especially at risk are poor people who find it hard to afford housing. Unemployment, housing costs, and living with others are evidence of the struggle to afford housing. It is encouraging that longitudinal trends from 2013 to 2014 indicate that the populations at risk, including individuals, families, and veterans, may be starting to benefit from the economic recovery (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016). In fact, from 2014 to 2015, homelessness decreased by 2%.
Table
8.3.
Summary Points: Meeting Human Needs, Wellness, and Strengths Perspectives
Abraham Maslow suggested a hierarchy of human needs that helps with problem identification.
When working with child abuse and neglect, considering the hierarchy of needs helps the professional understand the issues the child and families face and, in many instances, the order in which problems should be addressed.
Knowledge of wellness, or a life oriented to optimal health and well-being, helps professionals identify areas of strength as well as areas that could be strengthened.
Creative, coping, social, essential, and physical represent aspects of a wellness model.
Client strengths refer to positive characteristics, abilities, and experiences of the client.
Building on client strengths helps the client view issues from a new perspective.
A continuing problem is that the technological society in which we live has eliminated many unskilled and semiskilled jobs; the downsizing of many companies, the closing of factories, and the outsourcing of the production of goods to countries with cheaper labor have been the direct cause of job loss. A second reason is urban renewal or gentrification, which many municipal governments promote as a way to revitalize the downtown areas of cities. This movement has brought a decrease in low-cost housing, displacing individuals without providing any alternative affordable homes. The changing structure of the American family has also contributed to the growth of this population. Since the nuclear family is more isolated than in previous generations, such events as divorce and the death of a spouse have forced individuals (and in some cases, whole families) to adapt to a lower level of survival.
Homeless veterans are an at-risk population that is on the rise. They constitute about 17% of the homeless population due to poverty, lack of support networks, and overcrowded or substandard living conditions (Homelessness Stats: What You Should Know, 2016). Mental illness, substance abuse, or both (dual diagnosis) make this population particularly vulnerable. In Box 8.2, Class Discussion, you can learn more about the plight of the homeless.
To improve your understanding of how human service professionals understand this complex client group—the homeless—think about the homeless in your community. As this group becomes more numerous and more visible, you may see them sleeping beside buildings or rummaging through garbage cans. Think of an individual you have seen, and describe his or her physical appearance.
How old do you think this person is?
How do you imagine this person spends an average day?
Where does this person stay at night?
How might this individual fit into the categories of the homeless as described?
Identify five problems that this homeless individual has.
Which problems are represented in Maslow’s hierarchy?
Which problems relate to the strengths model?
Discuss your findings with your classmates.
Do you need urgent help with this or a similar assignment? We got you. Simply place your order and leave the rest to our experts.