Avoid the tyranny of 'othering' - we are human beings
Social workers should consider how language and labels can “other” people and instead allow them to speak of their experiences on their own terms.
That was the message from people with lived experience who work alongside academics in social work education at the Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Peterborough.
Experts by experience told of times when they felt disempowered by “classification” – the labelling and box ticking aspect of social care practices in the UK today.
Aisha*, a member of the university’s Service User Participation and Advice (SUPA) group, said: “I have all these boxes of classification such as bipolar, complex PTSD, depression… I’m one or the other, social workers don’t know where I fit.
“But then, I’m also a human being with a personality. Sometimes you are just fitting into boxes for the system and then your personality becomes something quite different.
“Othering makes you feel oppressed, because you become so used to people fitting you into those different boxes.
“I’m supposed to fit a certain stereotype of people’s perceptions of me, and then I have all these mental health problems that affect me, so I have to adjust to people.
“I have to try even harder to be confident, to be more visible, to assert myself, because I fit into what they want.
“Why can’t I just be me?”
Language and power
Chris Munt (MBE) a social worker and academic with lived experience of mental illness [his term], emphasised the importance of valuing service users as equals.
He spoke of the risk social workers run of “re-authoring” authentic lived experience: “The language used can be a real issue for many people.
“I don’t go to bed at night with ‘mental health’ and wake up with ‘mental health’ in the morning.
“I hear voices that will often tell me to kill myself, so that’s not mental health, that’s mental illness.
“That’s my meaning, my truth. And I think sometimes the language tries to diminish the impact and the seriousness, the acuteness of people’s experience.
“With re-authoring I think you have to be very measured, because what you can end up doing is displacing the person's narrative and imposing your own.”
The power relationship inherent in social work is also something to be conscious of, Chris said: “It's about thinking about the role of power in 'othering'.
“I received a lot of spirit-breaking messaging early on in my time within services. I was told I had a chronic condition, how it was very serious, it needed medicating.
“It took a long time before I found somebody who really challenged that and started to get me to consider my personal growth and development, to lead a purposeful and productive life again.
“So many people, when they come into services, have a degree of richness about their lives, but very quickly you can have all those assets stripped away or at least suspended.
“I think we've got to restore agency at the earliest and most appropriate time.”
Chris said a different collective consciousness is needed in social work to bring together the wisdom of people's experience with the professional body of knowledge.
He added: “It’s something we are doing here at ARU for the benefit of the student body so that when they go out on placement and post qualifying, they have a real sense of the social work role, but also the impact that the social work profession has in the real world, in the lives of the people that we deliver services to.”
Boxes and labels
The SUPA group emphasised the need to break down social barriers within social work and challenge the labels and stigmas that limit an understanding of individual experience.
One social worker acknowledged the labelling that goes on in the profession, saying: “As a social worker, there are labels we have for people in terms of whether they are eligible for services or not eligible. We do that from day to day, we are ‘othering’ all the time.
“In terms of how we support people, we are putting them into little boxes – ‘this is a mental health case’ or ‘this is an older person,’ or ‘this is physical disabilities…’
“All of those things are othering because we are boxing people into different services. But it’s the label sometimes that enables the service to be offered.
“I think it’s really difficult because we have to do that as part of our role to ensure people get the right care. We do it all the time.”
The group is calling for inclusive and holistic care that recognises the value of service users' insights and experiences.
Top tips
Tips for avoiding othering include:
- Focus on people as individuals, first and foremost
- Be conscious of implicit bias
- Diversity is to be celebrated not feared
- Be aware of language and how identities are multidimensional
- Broaden your social and professional circles, step out of the mainstream and immerse yourself in different groups and experiences
The SUPA group appeared at a session during Social Work Week entitled The Drip Drip Tyranny of Othering.
*Name changed to protect identity