Virtual or virtuous- online magic in connection
When going virtual trumps face-to-face contact
I am all for embodied presence, turning up and looking another person in the eye, but there is also a huge level of emotional absensing and bodily presesence that can be far less meaningful than an online engagement by adopting a bums on seats approach to social services. So it is not fair to pitch one option against the other or declare one good and the other bad. When it comes to viability of social services in an uncertain world, and the protection of our mental and physical wellbeing, we cannot afford to stay still. We are all vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, unstable government, age and ill-heath. I say this not to induce a state of drones or helplessness: I say it to create a sense of urgency around creating greater choices and liberating ourselves from narrow views about the ‘way we do things around here’.
On this instance, I am talking about disability supports. During the pandemic, we learnt the hard way, but we have not thoroughly mined the lessons of the pandemic to understand what works better for some. So what did we learn? We learnt that online disability services offer a good alternative to face-to-face services for some disabled people. I conducted research as part of my PhD during COVID-19, when online services supported people to stay connected while self-isolating. The findings suggest that online services were democratic and gave people greater choice and control over how they interacted and changed power relationships within services. I spoke to 12 Irish service. Proveders who told me that ‘ this is where the magic happens ‘. They were amazed at how being online acted as a leveller of power dynamics and. How people grew and co- facilitated sessions. Service providers were challenging themselves about the dangers of returning to business as usual. The research concludes that staff practices are key for creating conditions conducive to safe spaces, sustaining well-being, and reshaping power dynamics and emphasise the importance of embracing technology as a tool for innovation within complex operating environments. These findings are significant as services are poised at a crossroads: the impetus to develop virtual services requires an appreciation that disruptive events can occur at any time. It also speaks to the right to have a choice of if, where, when and how to participate. The enacted practices of people working together in self-organising groups led to the creation of psychologically safe virtual services that sustained relationships, pointing a way forward for further investment in innovation, facilitation and digital skill development. Staff on the ground innovated up through the system in the absence of clear policy or direction and this too needs greater attention in our increasingly volatile world, where nothing remains the same and yet we are all vulnerable.
You can read the paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2024.2411528#d1e1085.
O’Donnell, J., Desmond, D., & MacLachlan, M. (n.d.). Learning from innovative staff practices that led to virtual disability services using the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems. Disability & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2411528.
