This document discusses resilience and empowerment. It defines resilience as the ability to bounce back from adversity through positive adaptation and maintaining mental health despite challenges. Sources of resilience include personal factors like optimism and social support, as well as developing cognitive flexibility. The strengths perspective approach to social work emphasizes empowerment and helping clients utilize their strengths and resources to achieve goals. It involves collaboration, viewing clients holistically, and building resilience through connection, maintaining hope, and taking control of life situations.

1. Resilience
and
Empowerment
By: Lindsey, Summer, & Liz

2. Introduction:
• “Don’t be a prisoner of your past, but
a pioneer of your future”
• Sandy Taylor

3. Resilience:
• Definitions:
• “refers to a positive adaptation, or ability to maintain or
regain mental health, despite experiencing adversity”
(Herrman, 259).
• “the ability to bounce back from adversity and
successfully adapt to the demands of stressful situations”
(Mak, 2).
• “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity.
Research has shown that resilience is ordinary, not
extraordinary” ("Road to resilience," 2012).

4. Negative
Cognitive Triad:
Resilience is to be associated
with the use of positive affect
Making use of positive
emotions= bounce back from
adversities.
The way people perceive and
interpret adversity affects the
way they feel and how they
relate to the world around
them.
“Depressed individuals
view themselves, their
world, and future in a
negative fashion” (Mak,
2)

5. Positive Cognitive Triad

6. Resilience is not a
trait
• People do not have resilience!!!
• Developing resilience consist of
behaviors, thoughts, and actions that
can be learned by anyone!

7. Sources of
Resilience:
• Personal Factors:
openness, extraversion,
and agreeableness.
Which Tara and
Chervelle both exhibited
in the movie All of Us.
• Another part is cognitive
flexibility, social
attachments, positive self
concepts, spirituality,
active coping, optimism,
hope, resourcefulness,
and adaptability. Chervelle
showed continuously
throughout the movie how
these attributes fit her;
attending church, getting
her GED then a job she
had hope for the future.

8. Sources of
Resilience:
• Biological Factors: Brain
changes and other biological
processes can affect the
capacity moderate negative
emotions and affect
resilience to adversities
• Environmental-
Systematic Factor:
Social support, relationships
with family and peers is
correlated with resilience.
Unfortunately Tara’s main
and only support was her
boyfriend who was staying
with her for sex, her wasn’t
there for her emotionally.
For Chervelle she made a
great support system for
herself; the church, friends,
and family.

9. Factors in
Resilience:
• Primary factor is having a caring and supportive
relationships within and out of your family. This
love and trust will present support and comfort.
• The capacity to make realistic plans and carry
them out
• An affirmative view of self and confidence in
your strengths and capabilities
• Communication skills and problem solving
• The ability to cope with strong feelings and
emotions

10. Indicators of
Resiliency:
• Behavioral
• Emotional
• Educational

11. How to Build
Resilience:• 1.) make connections: close
family members, friends & others.
Accepting help and support is just
as important so those close to
you can who are will listen to you
and strengthen your resilience.
• 2.) avoid seeing crisis as
insurmountable problems: you
cant change that a highly stressful
event happened to you, but you
can change how you interpret and
respond to these event.
• 3.) Accept that change is a part
of life: focus on the events you
can make different.
• 4.) Move towards goals:
develop realistic goals.
• 5.) Take decisive action: don’t
detach from the problem and wish
it would just go away.
• 6.) Look for opportunities for
self discovery: learn about
yourself; may feel a greater sense
of strength even while feeling
vulnerable, gain an increased
sense of self-worth and
appreciation for life.
• 7.) Nurture a positive view of
yourself: develop confidence in
ability to problem solve.
• 8.) Keep things in perspective:
keep things in a broader context
• 9.) Maintain a hopeful outlook:
optimistic outlook, visualize what
you want rather than worry
• 10.) Take care of yourself

12. Where to find
help:
• Self-help and support groups
• A licensed mental health professional
– Psychologist
– Therapist
– Social worker
– Etc…

13. Empowerment:

14. Empowerment

15. Principle of Self-
empowerment:
• Stresses the clients rights and
responsibility in the development of
human empowerment.
• “People empower themselves: social
workers should assist” (Boehm, 450).

16. Empowerment
Model:
• “In the empowerment model health care
professionals respect the patient and
assist in making decisions in ways that
have meaning to the patient” (Lau, 372).
• This model is one of reciprocal respect
and the respect stems from seeing the
meaning in human life and building good
rapport.

17. Empowerment Model

18. Concept of
Empowerment:
• Patient empowerment is all about
helping people assert control over
factors that cause distress to their
health.
• The way the patient empowerment starts
is with information and education, this
might include the patient seeking it out
on their own, being assertive and
contributing in treatment decisions.

19. Key Elements:
• Knowledge
• Behavioral skills
• Self- responsibility
• Working relationship between health
care professionals and patient

20. Attributes of an
Empowered
Patient:
• “empowered patients tend to be highly
interactive and communicative with
their health care providers and are
involved in their treatment decisions”
(Marelich, 475).

21. Tying the two
together:
• The strengths based perspective helps build a
persons resilience while empowerment is at the
core of the perspective. Resilience and
empowerment work together and lead to
wellness for the individual.

22. Strengths Based
Perspective:
Empowerment:
• Helping process to assist
people to use their
strengths to overcome
their challenges
Resilience:
• The ability to recover
quickly from adversity; as
well as a the continuation
of growth, knowledge,
insight, and virtues.

23. Strengths based
perspective:
• “The strengths based perspective is a dramatic departure
from conventional social work practice. Practicing from
strengths orientation means this- everything you do as a
social worker will be predicated on helping to discover,
explore, and exploit clients strengths and resources in
the service of assisting them to achieve their goals and
realize their dreams” (Rankin, 5).

24. Principles of
strengths based
perspective:
• 1.) Everyone has strengths
• 2.) Trauma, abuse, illness, and struggle
can also be bases for challenge and
opportunity
• 3.)Collaboration with client works best
• 4.) Every environment is full of resources
• 5.) Care, Caretaking context

25. “Developmental
RESILIENCE, healing and
WELLNESS, solution
focused therapy, asset
based community
development” (Rankin, 5).
The strengths perspective
involves empowerment as a
major part as well as
resilience and wellness; you
cant have one without the
other.
Resilience, healing, and
wellness were all
demonstrated in the
documentary All of Us!

26. References:
• Boehm, A. (2002). The functions of the social worker in empowering: The voices of
consumers and professionals. National Association of Social Work, 47(4), 449-460.
• Delport, R., Strydom, H., Theron, L., & Geyer, S. (2011). Voices of HIV&AIDS-affected
• educators: how they are psychosocially affected and how REds enabled their
• resilience. AIDS Care, 23(1), 121-126. doi:10.1080/09540121.2010.498857.
• Herrman, H., Stewart, D. E., Diaz-Granados, N., Berger, E. L., Jackson, B., & Yuen, T.
• (2011). What Is Resilience?. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 56(5), 258-265.
• Lau, D. (2002). Patient empowerment- a patient centered approach to
improve care. Hong Kong Medical Journal, 8(5), 372-374.
Mak, W. S., Ng, I. W., & Wong, C. Y. (2011). Resilience: Enhancing Well-Being
• Through the Positive Cognitive Triad. Journal Of Counseling Psychology, 58(4),
• 610-617. doi:10.1097/a0025195.
• M, W. D. (2003). Effects of empowerment among HIV-positive women on the
• patient-provider relationship. AIDS Care, 15(4), 475.
Rankin, P. (2007). Exploring and describing the strength/ empowerment
perspective in social work. Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice, (14), 1-25.
Road to resilience. (2012). Retrieved from http://apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilence.aspx