It Takes a Community

Sometimes we need a thorough shaking-up to realise that the things we unconsciously hold to be self-evident truths, are at best, half-formed interpretations. What we think we have understood is just a partial approximation of reality.?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in trying to understand what it could mean for ‘community to be a protagonist’ in fostering mental health. In Europe we have a natural inclination to think of mental health as a property of the individual, extending our gaze to the family, and perhaps the immediate environment, when a systemic approach is adopted. At the same time there is a strong body of work which provides insightful analysis into the impact of larger scale social forces and broad societal trends on mental health broadly. Think for example of analyses of cultural trauma, social isolation, and unhealthy patterns of engagement through social media.

Widening our gaze in this way plays an important role in displacing mental illness from its most comfortable positioning: as a condition of the individual. These other considerations paint a compelling picture of the interaction between individuals, families, the social environment, and larger social forces unfolding across the planet.

When we lift our attention purely from the individual, we can start to give serious consideration to the role of community. This requires going beyond regarding community as a collection of individuals or groups, but rather as something that is greater than the sum of its parts. A protagonist in its own right that has a role to play that is distinct from that of individuals and institutions.

When it comes to mental health, while we may find intuitive resonance with this idea, it can be hard to identify what exactly we might mean by the community as a protagonist, particularly if it is not just another term for the role of individuals or institutions.

Over the last year or so, as I have been struggling with my mental health, I have received fabulous care from individuals both as expressions of friendship and in being able to draw on professional experience and knowledge. We have also benefited from medical institutions that have included us as a family in their decision making and treated us with dignity and compassion.

We have also keenly felt the impact and support of community? - a support that extended beyond individual offers of help and support. The numerous expressions of support are too various to mention, but I want to sketch out a small but beautiful example in which we felt as if we saw the role of the community as a protagonist reach a new level.?

One of the dilemmas we faced as a family was our desire to be in the loving and supportive embrace of family - particularly for Clare and the girls - after months of Clare having to tend to every need of the family alone. Ideally this would be a trip for us all, but we felt it essential Clare be able to travel to her family even if I were not yet in the position to join.? However, it did not seem a satisfying solution for Clare and the girls to travel and for me to be left in the care purely of the hospital. However fabulous the medical staff were, there was still clearly the need for an additional layer of support while the family was gone - that of the community.? However, in our countries and societies organised primarily around individuals, it was not necessarily immediately clear what it would mean for the community to be a protagonist in supporting our family at this time.?

Deciding the only way forward was to take steps and learn in action, my wife organised a gathering to bring together friends from the community around us, as well as a nurse from the hospital. The idea was that in creating a space for consultation around the principles we were exploring, we would be able to identify, however imperfect, some steps forward in learning about this topic and in providing this support to a family. The exhortations in the Baha’i Writings to consult on all matters of importance gave the fundamental framework for the conversation we were to have, including:?

“In all things it is necessary to consult. This matter should be forcibly stressed by thee, so that consultation may be observed by all. The intent of what hath been revealed from the Pen of the Most High is that consultation may be fully carried out among the friends, inasmuch as it is and will always be a cause of awareness and of awakening and a source of good and well-being.”

And:

“Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step in your own personal affairs. Concern yourselves with one another. Help along one another's projects and plans. Grieve over one another. Let none in the whole country go in need. Befriend one another until ye become as a single body, one and all…”

And:

“The purpose of consultation is to show that the views of several individuals are assuredly preferable to one man, even as the power of a number of men is of course greater than the power of one man. Thus consultation is acceptable in the presence of the Almighty, and hath been enjoined upon the believers, so that they may confer upon ordinary and personal matters, as well as on affairs which are general in nature and universal.

For instance, when a man hath a project to accomplish, should he consult with some of his brethren, that which is agreeable will of course be investigated and unveiled to his eyes, and the truth will be disclosed. Likewise on a higher level, should the people of a village consult one another about their affairs, the right solution will certainly be revealed. In like manner, the members of each profession, such as in industry, should consult, and those in commerce should similarly consult on business affairs. In short, consultation is desirable and acceptable in all things and on all issues.”

Something quite profound happened in engaging in this process of consultation. For my immediate family - wife, mother, sisters, - there was a very real demonstration of the fact that they are not alone in this matter. Not only do people have nice words to say, but they are ready, indeed, eager to think along and contribute to solutions. This is such a contrast to our Western instincts to, in the name of respecting the privacy of individuals, ignore the large elephant in the room and leave those closest family members to try and carry the burden alone. Opening up this matter to consultation with the community opens the space for people to be able to respond and provide support, the idea of providing support is no longer theoretical.

This act of consulting requires shifts on all sides. For example, I am very much used to being in the position of being able to provide for others or be the one offering help and support. However it has been a crashing realisation that as long as I hold myself in the position of one who gives help and support, I am holding myself apart from those around me. I am subtly feeding a whole host of existing prejudices and assumptions which divide humanity between those in a position to give and those who have to receive. Being stripped down by my greatest challenges in this period, without abandoning the knowledge that I am a noble creation of God, has had an utter transformation on the relationships with those around me. A transformation that is allowing for a much more genuine heartfelt love to flow.

Clare O'Brien has written a companion piece that is complimentary to this describing the thinking behind and process of organising the consultation. Read it here.