10 Tips About Mental Health Vulnerability Online

a post by Will Van Der Hart for the Mind and Soul Foundation blog



One question I get asked really regularly is about sharing my emotional/mental health struggles online. Having just written a book with the subtitle, “Discovering the confidence to lead with vulnerability”, I guess its not surprising! The thing about vulnerability though is that it’s not about being a ‘bleeding heart in the public square.’ Oversharing isn’t healthy vulnerability, it’s a damaging way of us manipulating other people’s emotions towards us. This is the difference between ‘being vulnerable’ and ‘using vulnerability’.

The first thing I always ask myself when I am posting something personal online is, “What am I trying to do here?” If I am using vulnerability, the answer could be more direct: I want sympathy, I want attention, I want acclaim. In my experience oversharing nearly always results from an ‘I want’.

If I am being healthily vulnerable the answer to that question isn’t nearly so stark. It may be as simple as ‘I’m just being me’ or ‘I am trying to model something’ or ‘I am trying to help people who may be in a similar situation.’ I would say pretty much without exception that nothing good has ever come out of me oversharing online, inversely I know the my ‘being vulnerable’ has been helpful to myself and others. Even when your intentions are good, posting about your own mental health online carries its own pressures and risks. Over the last 14 years I have made quite a few mistakes and learnt a few hard lessons. Here are a few of my top tips (not forgetting all of the usual guidelines about staying safe online.)

Continue reading

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When rhetoric does not translate to reality: Hardship, empowerment and the third sector in austerity localism

an article by Hulya Dagdeviren (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Matthew Donoghue (University of Oxford, UK) and Alexis Wearmouth (Queen Mary University of London, UK) published in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 1 (January 2019)

Abstract

Austerity localism powerfully explains dynamics of (dis)empowerment at the local level, especially regarding the autonomy and accountability of local authorities and third sector organisations (TSOs) in the UK. Yet these dynamics at institutional level have also a clear impact on individuals, especially the socio-economically vulnerable.

This is especially true in a time of cost-containment and welfare retrenchment.

This article addresses a gap in the literature by focusing not only on TSOs but also on the experiences of vulnerable individuals under austerity localism. The discussion is centred on two types of TSOs: foodbanks and advice/advocacy organisations.

Drawing upon primary qualitative data from three locations in England and Wales, the article argues that the emphatic rhetoric of empowerment within austerity localism, which others have shown to be problematic at the institutional level, does not translate into real-world empowerment for service users and other vulnerable individuals.

In making the argument the article contributes to work on expanding the analytical scope of austerity localism, as well as further exploring the roles and prospects of TSOs in the current long period of austerity in the UK.

Full text (PDF 18pp)

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Identifying Vulnerability to Poverty: a critical survey

an article by Mauricio Gallardo (Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile) published in Journal of Economic Surveys Volume 32 Issue 4 (September 2018)

Abstract

In the economic literature on poverty, various methods have been proposed for measuring a phenomenon known as ‘vulnerability’. However, after more than a quarter century of research, no consensus has been reached on how to identify such vulnerable individuals within a given population.

Some misunderstandings have also arisen from the overlapping of other closely related concepts, such as the expectation of being poor, expected poverty, multi‐period poverty and risk exposure.

This paper offers a detailed conceptual discussion on vulnerability to poverty and its related elements, reviewing a wide range of identifying criteria provided in the literature. It is found that according to the state of the art in this field of research, two key elements stand out in identifying vulnerable individuals:

• an expected well‐being below the poverty line and
• a relevant risk of falling into poverty due to downside deviation from a reference level of well‐being.

The traditional classification of vulnerability approaches has been updated into four groups:

1. those that stress the element of exposure to risk;
2. those that emphasize the element of expected poverty;
3. those that define vulnerability through a utility gap and
4. those that are supported by a mean‐risk dominance criterion.

Full text (PDF 32pp)

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Boundaries: Learn How to Stand Your Ground

a post by Christiana Star for the World of Psychology blog

Boundaries Are Important

From a psychological perspective, boundaries are the mental, emotional, spiritual or relational limits on who and what kind of influences you accept into your life. How you expect to be treated depends on your personal history and self-evaluation. This is different for each person and circumstance. What is acceptable in one case and with one person, may not be tolerated in other instances.

The Cost of Weak Boundaries

People with damaged self-esteem and low self-acceptance usually have weak psychological and energetic boundaries. They may easily feel suffocated or ‘sucked’ into the other person’s world. They find it difficult to assert themselves and make decisions. They are easily influenced and often defer to the other person rather than expressing their own opinion and wishes. Feeling vulnerable, they may even avoid or withdraw from close contact with others so that physical distance takes the place of firm energetic and psychological borders.

Continue reading for suggestions on:

• strengthening your boundaries
• saying “no”
• standing up for yourself (being assertive)

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Disability and Vulnerability: Challenging the Capacity/Incapacity Binary

an article by Beverley Clough (School of Law, University of Leeds, UK) published in Social Policy and Society Volume 16 Issue 3 (July 2017)

Abstract

This article engages with emerging debates in law and feminist philosophy around the concept of vulnerability. Central to this is the call to re-imagine and re-frame vulnerability as universal – as something which is experienced by all individuals, by virtue of their humanity and context as social beings.

The implications of this for laws and policies predicated on groups or categories as ‘being vulnerable’ will be explored in this article, using the concept of mental capacity as an example of how the boundary between capacity and incapacity can be contested through this lens.

The article will critically consider the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated literature, such as Court of Protection cases, the House of Lords Select Committee's post-legislative scrutiny and Serious Case Reviews, which demonstrate the growing concern about the inadequacy of the binary between capacity and incapacity. This in turn provokes a challenge to accepted wisdom in the context of disability more broadly, inviting us to think in particular about the responses to perceived vulnerability that are currently deemed appropriate.

Insights from the legal literature invite further exchanges with social policy theorists as to the concept of vulnerability and its challenges and implications for law and policy.

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Disability, Oppression and Violence: Towards a Sociological Explanation

an article by Andrea Hollomotz (University of Leeds, UK) published in Sociology Volume 47 Number 3 (June 2013)

Abstract

Disabled people are exposed to a higher incidence of violence compared to the population average. Consequently, they are often described as ‘vulnerable’.

This article argues that this concept focuses explanations for violence on the person at risk. It therefore redirects attention towards the social forces that make violence more likely to occur.

With reference to case studies, a micro-analysis outlines how subtle forms of oppression, including imbalanced personal relationships, social exclusion, restricted autonomy and a higher tolerance for maltreatment within segregated settings, affect the daily experiences of disabled people. This is followed by a macro-analysis, which exposes further structural inequalities and a societal ratification of hostility towards disabled people.

These processes are described as forming a continuum, which highlights that boundaries between mundane experiences and contact violence are at times blurred and shifting.

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‘I remember thinking, why isn’t there someone to help me? …

Why isn’t there someone who can help me make sense of what I’m going through?’
‘Instant adulthood’ and the transition of young people out of state care

 an article by Ruth Rogers (Canterbury Christ Church University) published in Journal of Sociology Volume 47 Number 4 (December 2011)

Abstract

Recent years have seen a shift away from youth transitions being understood as a linear progression towards conventional goals. Instead, it is now argued that youth transitions tend to be highly chaotic, often involving non-linear and fragmented movement between dependence and independence.

This article discusses how young people leaving the state care system are seldom afforded the luxury of a more gradual and non-linear transition. Instead, for them, the possibilities of adult futures remain marked by chronic and continuing exclusion as they move abruptly into ‘instant adulthood’, with no opportunity to return to the child welfare system should they find themselves unable to make it on their own.

Drawing from findings of 30 in-depth interviews with young care leavers, social workers and further and higher education institutions in the UK, the article considers the experiences of young people leaving state care, including their perceived lack of ‘care’, and the importance they place on unconditional and emotional support and contact.

Hazel’s comment:
This is, I believe, an important point to remember when providing career guidance to young people. It was certainly evident with the adults I advised as an employment adviser that those with a chequered history in childhood were more difficult to place in adulthood – even when vacancies were comparatively plentiful.

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