Emerging Inter-Dependence

This article is originally from August of 2009.

There is some sort of continuum in a wide variety of types of dependent relationships progressing towards greater independence and then in to inter-dependence.

The most common example is with a child. A baby expects to be taken care of. If any of its needs are not being met, he/she will definitely let you know. The child then starts to recognize things that he/she really can’t do for himself/herself and the child is in the position where he/she need to ask for help. As a toddler, he/she move on to the next stage where he/she will need to start to do some things on his/her own.

This model can apply to an individual as well as a group of people – individual consumer, group of consumers (drop-in, clubhouses, advisory committees, work groups), employees (direct care workers, case managers), agencies (Core providers, other agencies) – any where there is a dependent relationship progressing towards independence and interdependence.

This could be applied on many levels, but my interest lies in the relationships of emerging groups of consumers with the parties they depend on. Individually consumers are dependent for supports and services that are provided by the core agencies. By nature of the relationship, consumers have disabilities that put them in a dependent position. For example, they cannot prescribe their own medications, nor would they need case management unless they have the need for case management.

There are some consumers that we provide supports and services for whom they are stuck in stage 1) Assumed Care or stage or in stage 2) Recognized Dependency. We need to recognize that there will be a certain number of consumers stuck in these regions of dependency. Most everyone else is temporarily there or is further on up the scale. The Recovery Movement in our county primarily involves the middle stages: 3) Emerging Autonomy; 4) Instructional Interdependence; and 5) Emerging Independence. In the last two stages, that is where Interdependence becomes a primary form of interaction. Some collaborations will hopefully enable you to solve a problem together, while on occasion, there will be other exemplary collaborations that are synergistic and catalytic and spur things on to new levels. People and groups need to be respected for whichever stage they are currently in.

Because there is this variance in where different consumers and consumer groups are at, there needs to be a conscious effort to avoid stereotyping the people who receive our services and supports from our system. The notion of “THE Consumer” is a myth. We are not all alike and we each have our own journey that we are traveling. The model is not for ‘typing’ consumers, but rather is to be used to explain the various relationships involved when someone in a dependent position transitions towards independence and inter-dependence. However, I am not sure that ‘stage’ is the right word for what I am trying to talk about. It is more like realms or regions that a person can be in as they are in a variety of different relationships. There is still a stage aspect to it, though. There is a progression from a beginning state towards an ideal state in the end. It may make things a little more complex and confusing, but, for me, it’s better to deal with this subject as part of continuum rather than in the black and white terms that we use so often.

Not much positive is said about dependency, yet we all experience it. Often times, we just don’t know it. We depend on our roads to be there and to be passable. We depend on clean water coming into our house and the ‘used’ water leaving it unseen or un-smelled. Many public services we never even think about until they are gone. The great black out in August of 2003 is an example of that. Dependency becomes a problem when it becomes inappropriate and there is no progress towards a different and more appropriate state. There are some people with great supervisory or physical needs may be dependent on a high level of care the rest of their lives and appropriately so. However, we would want them to make progress in the areas that can be developed.

When working with people who are in Recovery, we need to remember that they are each at their own level along the continuum. When we realize that, we are able to accept the person for where they are at and be there with them on their journey to the next level.