‘What does it mean to feel Safe?’
20.09.19: After a couple of weeks summer leave, I returned refreshed to my role this week as the Centrepoint Lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE). I have been thinking a lot whilst I was travelling on holiday about the concept of feeling ‘safe’, particularly as I had the opportunity to travel abroad during my leave to a country very different from the UK, and I was a female travelling alone. Whilst I was staying with friends once I got there, arriving alone in a new city far from my ‘home’ was unsettling and challenged my sense of self and my personal resources. Consequently, I reflected how challenging it must be for a young person to have to come to a new city or new accommodation, without necessarily knowing anyone there. I was left wondering what does ‘safe’ feel like for the young people, who find themselves homeless and needing Centrepoint services? And most importantly, how can we as an organisation, help that young person to feel ‘safe’, not just in terms of their physical safety but also in terms of their ‘psychological safety’?
Recently, Centrepoint has highlighted some of the physical risks to young people that being homeless can result in, such as increased risk of being caught up in criminal activities or being targeted by gangs and exploiters (https://centrepoint.org.uk/media/3425/escaping-the-trap.pdf). Consequently, it is important that Centrepoint has policies and procedures to keep young people physically safe within our services. However, there is also research evidence that notes how being homeless can be associated with a lack of ‘psychological safety’. For example, Riggs & Coyle (2002) found homeless young people felt isolated, rejected or alienated, lost a sense of their identity and person-hood whilst homeless, and lacked an emotional attachment to or identification with a place. Other research has also identified the consequences of this lack of psychological safety, namely high rates of depression, suicidal ideas and low self-esteem amongst homeless young people (Reilly et al., 1994; Craig et al., 1996; Holland, 1996; https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/making_the_link.pdf).
Psychological safety is a sense or belief that where you are is safe for interpersonal risk taking and that you are able to “show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image” (Kahn, 1990). In other words, you feel accepted and respected for who you are, and you feel that you are listened to and supported, which leads to increased motivation and self-esteem. A psychologically informed environment (PIE) approach would argue that the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness therefore go beyond the provision of housing alone. A PIE must create both a sense of ‘physical safety’ as well as a sense of ‘psychological safety’. Whilst if you are homeless, your immediate concern may be to find somewhere to sleep that night, homeless services are not ‘just a roof’ over someone’s head. Homelessness often means an absence of ‘psychological safety’, security or belonging, and housing alone cannot provide these home-like conditions unless there is ‘something more’ that is offered. This can be hard to quantify but in essence it is the subtle human interactions that occur every day between staff and young people, that create that sense of ‘psychological safety’.
Specifically, like all of us, homeless young people need to feel a ‘connection’ with somebody that they can talk to about how they feel; someone that can help them emotionally as well as practically. This is important, because our ‘psychological safety’ often comes through our relationships with others; knowing that there is someone there for us, someone who listens or cares and who ‘has our back’ or supports us. And this is where attachments and relationships formed with key workers or other staff working with a young person (e.g. within our Engagement, Health or Employment, Education & Training Teams) are so critical and valuable.
Of course if your early experiences have been one of trauma and disruption (i.e. having been made homeless or separated from your family or friends), it is likely that you will be more hyper-vigilant to future potential threats, and may be triggered by even seemingly neutral or minor threats to your physical or psychological safety. This can make forming relationships with others more difficult, and can make relationships challenging. However, taking a humanistic psychological approach (e.g. Rogers, 1951) providing the core conditions of warmth, empathy and unconditional positive regard, is the essential foundation when working with homeless young people in order to provide them with affirming relationships. Throughout my recent service visits, I witnessed some amazing examples of when staff were creating that ‘psychological safety’ for the young people that they were working with and to help them overcome their challenges. And moreover, I heard and saw many examples of how young people valued this, and how many felt ‘psychologically safe’ since they had come to Centrepoint, sometimes for the first time in their lives being able to ‘be themselves’.
Consequently, Centrepoint’s framework for PIE, as mentioned in my previous blogs, will focus heavily on the importance of attachment and building relationships with the young people who use our services. To address a young person’s physical safety and give them a place to stay away from immediate dangers, threats or inclement UK weather is just the first step. To allow that young person to #changethestory and reach their full potential, we need to support their ‘psychological safety’; to accept and respect them, so that they can move from defining themselves as ‘homeless’ to defining themselves more positively to meet the challenges of their future journey wherever in the world that may eventually take them.
