Wheel of Power

I attended a very interesting full day of training this week and although there was a lot of information included that I could write about I am going to specifically focus on an activity we did that was linked to the wheel of power.

For those people that have not heard of the wheel of power, which I will be honest I hadn't until this course it is a wheel that looks at different aspects of identity such as gender, wealth, race etc and demonstrates that those who in the centre of the wheel hold power based on that particular characteristic or aspect of their identity and that those on the outer edges are marginalised.

I got into an interesting conversation about this with someone who is outside of the Social Work world afterwards who based on the categories on this wheel has the power in 8 out of 12 categories. They commented on the fact that they do not feel they have privilege or power based on these. I explained how that is because they have not had the experiences that other people have had who fall into the more marginalised categories or they don't have to worry about specific things because of their gender or other categories.

Thinking about this further demonstrates how areas overlap. I was speaking to a fellow Social Worker about this blog and she comments on the privilege of being able to afford something unexpected. This links the housing and the wealth because if you are more privileged financially even if you aren't rich then you have more leeway to still pay important bills such as housing if something unexpected happens. Whereas if you are someone who is living in poverty then have a big bill that has to be paid straight away this may cause you to miss rent payments which could put your housing at risk. Whereas if you own a home you have more wiggle room to be able to speak to the mortgage provider for a payment holiday or if you did miss payments it would be a few months before any steps would be taken to remove your housing. Looking more into how the different areas overlap if you are undocumented or do not speak English you are unable to work which would then mean you are living in poverty and potentially have insecure housing.

People do not like to think about it but the majority of people are only a couple of difficulties away from being homeless. It only takes losing a job, missing a few bills and the inability to get yourself back on your feet before you are in a marginalised category for that particular area.

When I was looking at the wheel of power and “scoring” myself I have power in 7 areas out of 12. This is something I have to be mindful of when I go to visit people and remember that they may have extremely different life experiences that impact on how much they trust people or are willing to accept support. It changes the approach that needs to be taken, it means we have to think about potential adjustments that need making or what else needs to be offered such as use of an interpreter or information being translated into other languages so the person can understand.

I suppose this goes back to the conversations that we have quite often in Social Work about recognising our own values but also checking our bias and privilege before we visit people. Within the meetings that we have we hold the power because of our education level and the fact that in that situation we are the professional which for a lot of people makes them think we are in charge and that we are more knowledgeable. I would argue that in terms of what is available in the area or what someone is entitled to we do potentially have more knowledge but that does not make us an expert. We have to demonstrate respect for the person and an understanding that they know themselves better than we do and just because we see something as a risk or concern does not mean the person does. What we see as top priority may be the last thing on someone's mind and unless it is a safeguarding concern then it is not up to us to decide it should be dealt with first.

We are also reminded of the fact that there are situations where we also feel we are experiencing prejudice or bias towards us as workers and that is something we need to be willing to bring up with managers or peers to experience support. Just because we are in a position such as being a Social Worker it does not mean that we should accept abuse or discrimination. It was mentioned in the training about older people who are set in their ways and not necessarily going to change but if we do not mention anything or make them aware that the comment they made or action they took is not appropriate or acceptable how would they know? If they have just been allowed to say it because they are “from a different generation” or that they don't know what they are saying due to a diagnosis such as Dementia. You will find that people will attempt to justify comments or brush them off when they are challenged about them. This does not make what was being said okay or acceptable.

Obviously it is not always easy to challenge discrimination when you see it but we work in a field where we are there to advocate for the person and if they are being discriminated against we need to speak up for them when they can't necessarily do it themselves. We are advocates to make sure that people are receiving what they are entitled to and focusing on providing equality.

Equality does not mean treating everyone the same it means giving everyone the same opportunities. Someone described inclusion as realising that not everybody is starting on the same block. We all have life experiences or parts of our identity that have impacted how we experience the world. This is what can be forgotten sometimes. When I complete the wheel of power even if someone else was scored identical to me they may have had a longer or tougher road to get there which has impacted how much they trust other people or how resilient they are.

I have personally had life events that other people may not have experienced so that changes how I approach certain situations or what I value in life. Values are something we explore a lot in Social Work. We also talk a lot about unconscious bias and it is something we need to be mindful of when supporting people. This alongside anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice are some of the foundations of Social Work and link so closely to power and privilege.