Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations Program Transcript NARRATOR: People may be advantaged or disadvantaged in their lives. In this video program, Dr. Judy Lewis talks about using the social change strategies of advocacy and leadership to address the challenges faced by disadvantaged populations. DR. JUDY LEWIS: Society advantages some populations to the disadvantage of other populations. There are some direct ways that it happens where people are actually prevented from developing in the way they say should be able to develop if they had equal rights. But more importantly even now in societies, there are so many subtle ways that this happens. Somehow people who are part of disadvantaged populations get a strong message that they should see themselves as less than another group. So I think it is important if we're thinking about a society that enhances the mental health of its members to confront that process when it happens. To recognize when it's affecting us and when it's affecting our clients and to try to do something about it. I'd like to suggest that when counselors are working with clients, we always should look at the way the client might have been advantaged or disadvantaged by the community as a whole. That's the only way that we're going to really understand what it'll take to enhance their mental health. Because people come up against barriers that we don't necessarily know about. And it may be at different times in your life when you come across these barriers and move from an advantage in one area to disadvantage in another. Something like this happened to me recently. I was talking with a person who is actually not a newcomer to the counseling profession, she's a leader in the counseling profession. And she said to me Oh, Dr. Lewis, did you know you were my father's counselor educator when he got his doctorate? And I was thinking it is really time for me to start paying a lot more attention to ageism, because that's going to be my area from now on. These things change over time. But everybody I think is sometimes in the shoes of the advantaged, and sometimes in the shoes of the disadvantaged. We need to notice that about people. In order to address the challenges that are faced by disadvantaged populations, the only way you can be successful is by using social change strategies and advocacy and leadership. It is not going to happen just one person at a time getting one person at a time to adjust to what is a society that doesn't enhance their mental health. So I think it's important to recognize that we need to use advocacy, we need to be addressing the community and the society as a whole. © 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1 Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations One way I think to do this is to look at that whole process of disadvantaging. You can look at racism, yo.

1. Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations
Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations
Program Transcript
NARRATOR: People may be advantaged or disadvantaged in
their lives. In this
video program, Dr. Judy Lewis talks about using the social
change strategies of

2. advocacy and leadership to address the challenges faced by
disadvantaged
populations.
DR. JUDY LEWIS: Society advantages some populations to the
disadvantage of
other populations. There are some direct ways that it happens
where people are
actually prevented from developing in the way they say should
be able to develop
if they had equal rights. But more importantly even now in
societies, there are so
many subtle ways that this happens. Somehow people who are
part of
disadvantaged populations get a strong message that they should
see
themselves as less than another group.
So I think it is important if we're thinking about a society that
enhances the
mental health of its members to confront that process when it
happens. To
recognize when it's affecting us and when it's affecting our
clients and to try to do
something about it.
I'd like to suggest that when counselors are working with
clients, we always
should look at the way the client might have been advantaged or
disadvantaged
by the community as a whole. That's the only way that we're
going to really
understand what it'll take to enhance their mental health.
Because people come
up against barriers that we don't necessarily know about. And it
may be at

3. different times in your life when you come across these barriers
and move from
an advantage in one area to disadvantage in another.
Something like this happened to me recently. I was talking with
a person who is
actually not a newcomer to the counseling profession, she's a
leader in the
counseling profession. And she said to me Oh, Dr. Lewis, did
you know you were
my father's counselor educator when he got his doctorate? And I
was thinking it
is really time for me to start paying a lot more attention to
ageism, because that's
going to be my area from now on.
These things change over time. But everybody I think is
sometimes in the shoes
of the advantaged, and sometimes in the shoes of the
disadvantaged. We need
to notice that about people.
In order to address the challenges that are faced by
disadvantaged populations,
the only way you can be successful is by using social change
strategies and
advocacy and leadership. It is not going to happen just one
person at a time
getting one person at a time to adjust to what is a society that
doesn't enhance
their mental health. So I think it's important to recognize that
we need to use
advocacy, we need to be addressing the community and the
society as a whole.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

4. Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations
One way I think to do this is to look at that whole process of
disadvantaging. You
can look at racism, you can look at sexism, you can look at
heterosexism. You
can look at all of these major -isms and see them one at a time.
But it might
make more sense to try to change that aspect of society that
continues to be
organized around advantaging and disadvantaging. The same

5. kind of process
happens regardless of which -ism you're talking about.
We tend to recognize as individuals our own version of the -
ism. As a woman, I
might overlook racism sometimes. As a straight person, I might
overlook
heterosexism sometimes.
But I think it's really important if we're looking at how we can
have have a society
that enhances mental health, for us all to be looking across all
of the -isms. For
us to look at that process of advantaging and disadvantaging,
and try to see it
from the other person's point of view and try to build ally
relationships across
differences. I think if we can do that, then we can start to have
an impact on
these processes that are really not healthy for individuals'
mental health. I think
we can make a difference if we look at the process as a whole
and try to reach
across difference to make some change.
As a counselor, educator or supervisor, we know it is our
responsibility to help
our students learn about change processes. Help our students
learn about what
are the aspects of society that enhance mental health. And what
are the aspects
of society that go against building people's mental health.
The trouble is that none of us learned that growing up. We all
learned to be afraid
of difference. We all learned to fit in to the way society views

6. people. We all had
to work very hard to change our own point of view so we could
take the
perspective of other people.
And that's a lifelong effort that it takes. It really is raising
questions with ourselves
all of our lives-- am I seeing everything that's here? Does
somebody else need
me?
As a woman, I need my friend who's a male to stick up for me
sometimes when
somebody's making a sexist joke. As a white woman, I need to
be an ally to my
friends of color when they are affected by racism that may be
too subtle for most
people to notice. We need to be able to be asking ourselves
these questions all
the time. Then and only then will we be able to help our
students do the same.
Real ethical questions come into play when we're talking about
racisms and the
other -isms that affect so many people in our society. Ethical
codes normally ask
us to be careful not to discriminate against people. I think it's
just as important for
us to make sure that we address any discrimination that's
coming from the
community to impact on our clients.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 2

7. Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations
A lot of people used to learn as counselors that we should make
sure that our
clients focus on what they have the power to change. Focus
them on what they
can do something about. But actually, I think the opposite is
true.
I think the more that people have the opportunity to really delve
through what's
happening to them in terms of the impact of society, their own
feelings about how
society might be keeping them from enhancing their mental
health to the degree
that they would like. I think it's more likely that people will feel
empowered. And
the more empowered that people feel, the more they'll be able to
make decisions

8. about changes they can make in their own lives.
As counselor educators, we've got a big job to do in helping
counselors see their
role in that way. But I think if they are educated that way, if
that's part of the
process of supervision that they've had, I think they'll be able to
be much more
effective with their clients than if they had gone by the
conventional wisdom of
just keep them focused right away on their own behavior. Let
people see the
impact of the community-- it'll help them, not hurt them.
Social Change Application – Disadvantaged Populations
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© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 3
Discussion: Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Populations (Elderly
People)
Throughout history, groups of people have received
mistreatment that has little to do with who they are as people
and more to do with their age, gender, socioeconomic status,
skin color, or physical disability. People who face such
challenges are more at risk for developing mental health and
other life problems. Such problems might include substance
abuse, trouble with law enforcement, and homelessness. Human

9. services professionals may be motivated to assist such groups in
addressing the challenges they face; however, helping may be
difficult because of mistrust, cultural stigmas, and institutional
barriers. Whatever the difficulties, social change agents,
leaders, and advocates in the human services professions must
find ways to help disadvantaged and vulnerable groups face
challenges.
To prepare:
Select a disadvantaged or vulnerable population (Elderly
People), and reflect on the challenges people within this
population might face in society. This population can be local,
regional, or from another country.
Select a code of ethics that might be applicable to the Elderly
Population, and identify specific guidelines that might guide
your work with this population.
With these thoughts in mind:
By Day 4
Post a brief description of the disadvantaged or vulnerable
population you selected (Elderly People). Then, explain three of
the greatest challenges this population faces, as well as the
influence that addressing each of the challenges might make in
the lives’ of members of this population. Finally, identify a
professional code of ethics and explain two guidelines from
within that code that might pertain to working with this
population. Be specific, and provide examples to illustrate your
points.
Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific
references to the Learning Resources.
References
Homan, M. S. (2016). Promoting community change: Making it
happen in the real world (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
Chapter 5, “Knowing your Community” (pp. 113–151)

10. Wronka, J. (2017). Human rights and social justice: Social
action and service for the helping and health professions (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 4, "At-Risk and Clinical Social Action and Service
Strategies Toward the Creation of a Human Rights Culture" (pp.
187–239)
Kyounghae, K., Choi, J. S., Eunsuk, C., Nieman, C. L., Jin Hui,
J., Lin, F. R., & ... Hae-Ra, H. (2016). Effects of community-
based health worker interventions to improve chronic disease
management and care among vulnerable populations: A
systematic review. American Journal of Public Health, 106(4),
e3–e28. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302987.
Johnson, K., & Bonner, M. (2013). Utilizing the six generic
human service competencies and ecological systems theory as a
basis to understanding barriers faced by marginalized clients.
Journal of Human Services, 33(1), 47.
https://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-standards-for-
hs-professionals
Laureate Education (Producer). (2009e). Social change
application—Disadvantaged populations [Video file].
Baltimore, MD: Author. (Please see transcript attached)