Outside Looking In (Part Three)
Posted by Megan Elizabeth Morris on Tue, May 19, 2009
(This is a guest post by Megan Elizabeth Morris.)
Here's the second part to Michelle's story.
The first part -- the part you read last Tuesday -- happened fifteen years ago. In fifteen years, Angel's family moved to Florida, then back to Texas. Michelle outgrew Easter Seals. Their family income rose $2000 over the maximum that SSI allowed, so they were cut from SSI and auto-dropped from all national programs, including Medicaid. From that point on, it became harder and harder to find the right resources. Ever since then, Angel has struggled to find a social service contact to provide the assistance that came to her so easily when newborn Michelle was in the hospital.
"I finally stopped trying and found ways to make do," Angel said. "I figured that perhaps they were right, and with our income we really didn't need help. But after my husband and I got divorced, I started needing help again -- and have met nothing but walls because I've been out of the system for so long."
She's called number after number, lists of programs provided by the public school system. "I'm told that if I call this agency, they'll get me a case worker," she explained to me, "But I call and never get calls back." Angel and Michelle seem to no longer be in the system.
Angel's perception is that all of the programs for getting assistance with a handicapped child are somehow interconnected -- with a magic inner circle where, once you're accepted by one group (like SSI), you're in touch with them all. The rest fall in line, and pass you through their systems as well.
"It's mind-numbingly overwhelming," she told me. "I'm someone who doesn't deal with all of these agencies on a regular basis, and I don't know if I just didn't make it through the screening process, didn't meet their criteria, or if I'm just falling through the cracks because I don't have a case worker."
If Angel can't afford to hire a private social worker, what can she do? "If I could afford to hire someone to help me with the paperwork and talk to the agencies... I wouldn't need the agencies' help so earnestly." And she laughs. She's been dealing with this same situation for years. She's been told that the mission of these agencies is to help people like her... but those same agencies never call her back, perhaps because she's not already on their radar.
I asked Angel what this phone tag was like when she was on their radar. "I got called back every time," she said. "I just don't know why it was so easy to get into the system while we were sitting in the hospital, and so impossible to do it now."
Angel has yet to find a satisfying resolution for this problem, and she simply doesn't know where to turn for information. Whether Angel is perceiving the situation correctly or not isn't actually the point. In business, we say that the customer's perception is our responsibility because only we can make it easy for them to interact with us. Her perception counts -- all of your clients, all of your patients, and
every person you'd like to help but haven't connected with already,
they all have perceptions that count. The question is, where do their
perceptions line up with how you can help them, and what can you do to
close the gap?
In your work, the people you're trying to help need to know how to connect with you to get that help, even if it's only to find out that you're not the person who can help them, or to get them pointed in the direction of someone who can. If the people Angel is calling actually aren't the people who can help her, or even if there isn't an agency meant to help people in her specific situation, well then, a gap exists that an enterprising world-changer might fill. How many people must there be out there like Angel? And what can you do to make a difference in their lives?
It might be easier than you think, and it's worth a try. It's worth a lot of tries.
Megan Elizabeth Morris (email)
Ms. Morris writes at Personal Revelations of the Magnificent Megan M. Megan Elizabeth Morris, or The Magnificent Megan M., [proper noun]: Superhuman font of knowledge, skill, determination & resourcefulness. Exudes enzymes that cause others to surpass their potential. Master thinker; writes, designs, manages, ideastorms, markets, inspires, connects, grows, teaches, makes things happen, changes the world, and throws a mean right hook. (Okay. Not the last one. Well! Not literally.)