Outreach, in-reach, pathways, environments without buildings

Working in environments without buildings

The earliest description of a PIE - and the first examples given, in the DCLG/NMHDU guide that adopted and popularised the term - tended to assume that the environments where this new thinking was to be found were mainly within buildings.  Even so, the social and practical links and pathways between buildings within a services were seen as part and parcel of the same careful attention to on-going psychological and emotional needs.

In 'move on', in 'core and cluster' models, clubhouses, Key Ring models, and in supported accommodation and 'networked housing' of all kinds, we saw services working not with hurdles, but with careful transitions.

But we then also found gardening projects, and workers holding keyworker session in coffee bars, or in their car, or groups in a local park - and staff describing how changing the environment they worked in, from the buildings to the world outside,  could to help 'change gear' in the relationship with the service users.

When we then found outreach workers and Housing First staff joining the PIElink, it was only a short step to beginning to recognise and identify the relevance of the PIE approach here, and what we came to call the 'core skills of engagement'.

 

Outreach and the 'core skills of engagement'

The fragmentation of pathways, gaps and barriers obstructing the accessibility of services is the territory where outreach workers spent most of their time.  When therefore we found a growing number of outreach service workers coming to the PIElink and finding it helpful (HERE), this became one of the motivations for the revision of the earlier versions of the PIE, which had focussed primarily on buildings.

At the same time, the arrival in the UK of new thinking in the form of Jay Levy's work on Pretreatment began to help us find common ground between the PIE idea and work on the streets; or in the woods (HERE).

The constructive dialogue between thinking on PIEs and thinking on Pretreatment allowed us to start identifying the common core, in what we then called the core skills of engagement (HERE) .

This dialogue continues.

 

Working with the whole pathway

Meanwhile, the idea that exclusion was in some ways systemic, and the need for system change, and system brokerage, began to acquire some momentum.   Accordingly, we began to adopt a term already in use in health and social care, and speak of working with or managing 'pathways', or of creating 'a PIE of pathways'.

The revised, PIEs 2.0 account therefore treats all these as aspects of a whole; and attempts to find the common ground between all these ways of working, as expressions of the original PIE idea, in new forms. Here we talk now of creating - or simply finding - the 'spaces of opportunity' to engage, whether they may occur in buildings, on the street - or in the systems of services.

The Pizazz Self Assessment and Service Specification  framework therefore has a whole area devoted to outreach work, networking, and what we had called 'a PIE of pathways', as one of the more specific 'practice elements'.  Here we find them all grouped together, as one inter-locking but open system.

With the pen-and paper version of the Pizazz, there is limited scope for this - although those who do wish to 'drill down' further can do so by adding extra sheets for such detail. But the new PIE Abacus, the software version of the  Pizazz, does allow greater freedom to expand into and explore this territory.

For the comparison of the Pizazz on paper or on screen, see: 'The Pizazz on paper or on screen' : HERE

 

A PIE approach in community work

As this area of work gains area greater prominence, for some it may be valuable to be able to 'drill down' and focus in closer detail on particular aspects. For local commissioners in particular - and what are now called, in the US, 'Central Organising Structures", managing barriers and bottlenecks between local services may often be a central concern.

There is more on the need to address the issue of fragmented pathways, and the need to tackle Gaps and Barriers (HERE)  and a more 'whole systems' approach to PIEs (HERE)

 

 

 

Further background reading/listening/viewing

Whole systems as PIEs : HERE

Gaps and Barriers : HERE

Proxemics : HERE

 

Open spaces

Using the whole environment (2) : HERE

A PIE of pathways; the work of REACH in Western Massachusetts HERE

Brendan Plante on outreach and community : HERE

Camp Take Notice :  HERE

Into the woods - a video exploration of Camp Take Notice now;: HERE

Louise Simonsen on the Street Buddies team : HERE

A living room in a library helps people through their darkest times : HERE

Creating Safe and Inclusive Spaces : HERE

 

Evolving systems

Alex Smith and Ray Middleton: system change brokers : HERE

Gerry Dickson on Groundswell's Peer Health Advocacy : HERE

Steve Robertson on the Big Issue as a psychologically informed business environment : HERE

Gloucestershire Domestic Abuse Support Services : HERE

 

Ideas

Making meaning; the art of common language construction : HERE

Car, bus, tram or unicorn; why my car is a psychologically informed environment : HERE

Think swearing isn't big and clever? Think again HERE

On using the word 'you' to engage - or disengage HERE  

Loving beggars; how to escape stereotypes about street people :  HERE

A PIE of pathways; on attachment, relationship, witness, and continuity : HERE

For the rest of the 'spaces' collection:

  • Introducing the PIE approach : HERE
  • The built environment and adaptations : HERE
  • PIEs, scattered site and networked housing: HERE
  • Using the whole environment: HERE
  • Outreach, pathways, and environments without buildings : HERE
  • PIEs, communities and a sense of belonging : HERE
  • Clubhouses, cores, and campus models : HERE
  • PIEs in therapy settings : HERE
  • 'Psychologically informed business environments' : HERE
  • Whole system PIEs  : HERE
  • PIEs and ‘exclusion-informed research’ HERE