‘#BeMoreDog … The importance of not forgetting our basic needs when managing our psychological well-being’…

26.03.2021: As I was starting to write this week’s blog as the Lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) at the national youth homeless charity: Centrepoint, I was reflecting that this week marked the one-year anniversary of the start of the UK lockdown. In some ways, this is quite a depressing landmark, certainly, I think many of us did not believe one year ago that we would still effectively be in lockdown now and we would have sadly experienced this extent of loss, upheaval and change. However, there has also been some positively to mark at this point, particularly with the progress of the NHS vaccination programme (c.f. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56491532). As I took my regular daily walk with my dog this week (pictured above), I was reflecting on how I was personally coping with the ongoing lockdown one year on, as well as thinking about conversations in reflective practice sessions that I have been having with Centrepoint staff this past week.

In addition, I noted that I have been noticing more dogs in the park over recent months, as it seems that a ‘mans’ (or woman’s) best friend’ has been increasingly keeping us all company during this lockdown period. Although the working location has not changed for many of our amazing ‘frontline’ staff, who have continued to deliver face to face support to our homeless young people in supported accommodation services, a year ago our ‘support team’ staff followed the government directive to ‘work from home’. Therefore, perhaps as a reflection of his change in working practices for many people, having a dog has never been more possible or indeed popular, and as having been a dog owner for 12 years now, I can attest to their value and positive addition to my life. Research has also indicated that owning a dog can even have a positive effect on our physical and psychological well-being. This is because caring for a dog can lower our stress hormones (i.e. cortisol), increase our feel-good hormone (i.e. oxytocin), lower our blood pressure, increase our physical activity, and ease loneliness and depression (c.f. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-friend-who-keeps-you-young#:~:text=Research%20has%20shown%20that%20simply,that%20bonds%20mothers%20to%20babies).

Moreover, whenever I watch my dog or other dogs, I am always struck by how simple their needs are, how much they seemingly ‘live in the present’ and consequently how ‘happy’ they appear to be. This has led me to reflect this week, as lockdown continues, whether even if we do not or would not own a dog, that they can still teach us something to help us to continue to manage both our psychological well-being as well as those homeless young people or colleagues that we may be supporting within Centrepoint. Obviously at this point, I would just like to note that whilst I am not the biggest fan of cats given my partner’s allergies to them(!), I would not want to alienate any non-dog readers of the blog, and should note that there are many other pets for whom these points would equally apply.

So how can we #BeMoreDog in our daily lives? In answering this question, I was reflecting on the value of one of the first psychology models I learnt in my psychology training, about what humans need, and how they remain motivated. This model is Maslow’s (1943) ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (c.f. see video summary here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4ithG_07Q). Maslow (1943) specifically noted that we are motivated to fulfil our basic needs, before moving on to other, more advanced needs. As well as thinking about this in terms of motivation, it can also be helpful to think about this hierarchy in terms of what we ‘need’ in our daily lives that can make us happy, satisfied and able to cope with stress. Maslow’s background was in Humanist Psychology and he believed that humans have an innate desire to be ‘self-actualised’, or in other words; ‘be all that we can be’. However, he also understood that in order to achieve our bigger goals or dreams and have lasting happiness; a number of our more basic needs need to be met first. The importance of these basic needs has probably never been more relevant than in the past year of lockdown, wherein we have all been to some extent forced to ‘take stock’ and focus on what is most important due to the reduction in our freedoms (e.g. where we can go, what we can do and who we can see).

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is represented as a triangle (see picture below), which postulates that there are five different levels of needs, covering our basic, psychological and self-fulfilment needs. Our basic needs are argued to be the most important to get right before we can move on upwards in the triangle to fulfil more advanced needs, something I think my dog has totally got sussed as evidenced in the picture at the start of this blog! Unless we ensure that we have adequate food, water, warmth through shelter and clothing, and rest (i.e. our physiological needs) as well as security and safety (e.g. through our resources or finances and a lack of threat in our situation), then we cannot even begin to attend to and manage our more advanced psychological needs. For example, our need for a sense of belongingness and love achieved through our relationships, our need for self-esteem achieved through our sense of accomplishment, and eventually our need for self-fulfilment or self-actualisation achieved when we reach our full potential or engage in creative activities.

Psychologically informed environment (PIE) approaches focus on the importance of building relationships to enable some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society to achieve positive outcomes (Keats et al, 2012). However, as a psychologist I am also acutely aware that our basic needs must be addressed first, before any psychological needs or mental health issues can be addressed. For example, in my previous clinical roles, many of my clients needed support to access housing or welfare benefits, or have the opportunity to leave a threatening environment before any significant therapeutic work could be undertaken on their anxiety, depression or other mental health issues. Similarly, within Centrepoint, whilst the first step to working with a homeless young person is of course to provide them with a physical shelter or ‘home’ (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/what-we-do/housing/), we also realise that ‘a room alone is not the answer’, and therefore prioritise supporting them with their other basic needs.

For example, access to food through our brilliant ‘food point’ and dietetics service (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/about-us/blog/the-food-point-one-year-on/) and access to sufficient financial resources, for example through our support staff helping them to access welfare benefits or our bursary scheme as well as our policy team in their campaigning work (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/chance-to-move-on). As Maslow would perhaps predict, meeting these tangible basic needs for our homeless young people is actually often helpful in enabling the development of trusting professional relationships with them as they can see and utilise the further support on offer. This can then create the opportunity for them to reach out for further support, such as starting to address any of their psychological and/or self-actualization needs so that they can move on from their past negative experiences to achieve their educational, employment, creative or personal goals and #changethestory. For example, through the work of our Health Team in addressing mental health, relationship, substance use or past trauma issues (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/what-we-do/health/) as well as our learning teams in supporting them to access education, training and employment opportunities (c.f. https://centrepoint.org.uk/what-we-do/learning/).

Consequently, #BeMoreDog is therefore important to remember both when working with our homeless young people, but I would also argue in our own lives. When psychologists talk about self-care or what we need to do to manage our psychological well-being, what can often come to mind are self-actualising activities (e.g. creative activities or hobbies) or even psychological activities (e.g. social support). Whilst these are obviously important, Maslow’s model is useful to remember that our first focus should always be on our basic needs. Are we eating a healthy diet? Are we drinking enough water? Are we getting enough exercise and rest? Do we have a safe and secure environment to live (or work) in? Do we have enough resources to obtain what we need, even if we do not have enough for what we might want? These are certainly my dog’s priorities in life, and I think that there is a lot to learn from this both for ourselves and those we work with. Whilst Maslow’s model, and Humanist Psychology approaches are not without some criticism (e.g. Neher, 1991; Pearson & Podeschi, 1999; Kaur, 2013) particularly in terms of its cross-cultural applicability, there is certainly some intuitive sense in the notion that we cannot attend to our psychological and self-fulfilment needs without getting our basic needs right first.

Therefore, on this one-year anniversary of the UK lockdown, this is perhaps a moment to pause and reflect, and perhaps even re-set or re-prioritise our basic needs, which can be so easy be forgotten in our modern lifestyles but are so important in continuing to cope with the current situation. Our biology and social circumstances affect our psychological well-being, although it is easy to neglect or forget this in the search for the ‘perfect’ individual self-care activity that will lift our mood and help us to cope better with the stresses of our current situation. Perhaps we only remember this when our bodies start to ‘hold the score’ or manifest signs of stress through tension or physical health conditions, or we are surrounded by challenging social circumstances. Finally, whilst over the past year I have very much felt the benefit of being a dog owner on my ability to manage my psychological well-being, I am of course not advocating that everyone should get a dog! Nevertheless, maybe we can all #BeMoreDog in our outlook and refocus our energy on ensuring we meet our basic needs, in order to give ourselves the ongoing motivation to address our psychological and self-actualisation needs in order to achieve some contentment and increase our ability to cope with whatever the next year throws at us…