Tools

1. An introduction to community capacity mapping | 2. A primer on facilitation | 3. An introduction to community problem solving

3. Introduction To Defining The Issue And Developing A Solution

People in communities often come together to identify issues that matter to them, and take action to bring about positive change.

The starting point in any attempt to taking action to promote mental health is understanding the community context. The context is influenced by many things:

• people’s hopes and expectations - for example, the belief that things can change;
  
  
• job and family demands;
  
  
• issues of identity - cultural, gender, linguistic, sexual, etc.;
  
  
• problems, especially poverty and inequity;
  
  
• the broader social and political context.

Within this context, people may come together to identify issues that matter to them, and take action to bring about positive change in the community.

In this section we take a brief look at a process to help you define and analyze a community mental health issue, and then we lead you through some steps to generate and choose solutions to take action on that issue.

What Are The Steps In Defining An Issue?

If you’ve decided to take action to bring about change in your community, then you already understand that something isn’t quite right. You may have noticed that people in the community who have lost their jobs are experiencing a great deal of distress, and are not getting the support they need, or that children in the community are being neglected, and have a sense of hopelessness about their future.

Although these problems may seem insurmountable at first the process you can use to begin to solve these problems is not. It consists of four basic steps, which we explain in the following pages: looking at what you know, finding out more information on the problem, defining the problem, and generating and choosing soIutions. The first step in solving any problem is to:

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1. Start with what you know

You will never know everything about the issue you have decided to focus on, but you and the people in your group will probably already know more than you realize.

There are a lot of different ways to gather information about how people perceive the situation. They can be asked in advance to write down what they know about the problem. Or the facilitator can lead a brainstorming session to try to draw out the greatest number of ideas. Remember that a good facilitator will draw out everyone’s opinions, not only those of the most vocal participants.

The following are some helpful hints to keep in mind while brainstorming:

• Watch out for assumptions. Be aware that people may have the diversity in your group and your community.

• Be creative. Even just telling people that they should think as creatively as possible will probably help your group come up with more numerous and interesting suggestions.

• Don’t censor ideas. Brainstorming sessions are intended to produce as many ideas as possible. Discussion, analysis and idea selection come later.

• Write everything down. An idea which seems outlandish on first hearing might turn out to be possible, or might yield another idea which end up being the perfect solution to problem.

• Keep energy level high. The facilitator can set the pace and keep things going by soliciting more and different ideas from the group.

• Stay on track. It’s easy for the group to go off on a tangent during brainstorming. The facilitator or recorder can gently remind people of where they are going.
  
  
• Encourage synergy of ideas. Ideas can be piggybacked or combined as people see connections during the process.

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2. Decide what information is missing, and gather what you need

Information is key to effective decision making. You need to gather as much information about the problem as possible, in order to generate effective solutions. You might collect any of several types of information available. Usually, what you hear or read will fall into one of the following categories:

• Fact: People in the community who have experienced serious mental illness often find that they are excluded from many aspects of community life.

• Inference: People with mental illness in the community probably aren’t made to feel welcome in non-mental health related settings, such as local recreation and community centres.

• Speculation: If people with mental illness don’t feel comfortable taking part in the regular life of the community, like going to the community centre, it’s probably pretty hard for them to get back on their feet.

• Opinion: Places like recreation and community centres aren’t properly set up to deal with the needs of people with mental illness.

When you are gathering information, you will probably hear all four types of information, and all can be important. Speculation and opinion can be especially important in gauging public opinion. If public opinion on your issue is based on faulty assumptions, as in the case of the opinion expressed in the example used above, then part of your solution strategy will probably include some sort of informational or educational component.

Where and how do you find this information? It depends on what you want to know. A few of the possibilities include:

• the library;
• the internet;
• questionnaires;
• interviews.

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3. Define the Problem

With all the information in front of you, you’re ready to create a "problem statement", a comprehensive definition of the problem. Before you do, remember two general principles.

• Define the problem in terms of what you want to see change, rather than solutions to problems. If you define the problem in terms of a particular solution, you’re closing the door to other, possibly more effective solutions. "People with mental illness in our community don’t feel welcome taking part in community activities" offers more space for possible solutions than, "We need to create more activities and settings where people with mental illness will feel comfortable."

• Define the problem as one everyone shares; avoid assigning blame for the problem. This is important to ensure that the problem is not represented as the concern of only a few people, but is one that is important to the community as a whole.

Now, you’re ready to define the problem. Often the best way to do this is to have the facilitator write the problem statement on a flip chart, so that everyone can give feedback on it until the statement has developed into one that everyone is pleased with.

When you’re defining the problem, ask if everyone understands the terminology being used. Define the key terms of your problem statement, even if you think everyone understands them. People may understand the terms you’re using to have different meanings, and it’s helpful to come to a common understanding.

After you have developed a problem statement that everyone agrees with, you should make sure that there is agreement as to why the problem exists in the first place. Write down the problem statement, and ask participants "Why does this problem exist?" Write down the answer given and ask "But why does (the answer) exist?"

Continue on down the line until participants feel comfortable about the root of the problem.

Agreement is essential here. If people don’t agree about the source of the problem, an effective solution may still be out of reach.

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4. Generate and choose solutions

Generating and choosing solutions will be a much easier task for your group if you have already been through the process of defining and analyzing the problem together. Group members will have already reached a certain level of comfort with each other.

Generating solutions

Now you’re ready to think up some possible solutions. Besides brainstorming, there are many other ways to gather the kind of ideas you’ll need to develop your solution. The following are a few suggestions of some different techniques for generating ideas:

• Send several pieces of paper around the room. People can write down their ideas, which can later be discussed without anyone knowing who suggested which idea.
• If your group is large, divide it into smaller groups of 4-6 people. Each person writes a possible solution to the problem on his/her own pad of paper. Then each person puts their pad of paper on the table in the middle of the group. Next, everyone takes someone else’s pad and comments on the idea. People in the group keep doing this until everyone in the group has commented on everyone else’s idea. During or after the meeting, all the ideas are discussed or summarized in a report.

Evaluating solutions

Hopefully your work up to this point has produced many potential solutions. Now it’s time to decide which idea is best suited for your group. Answering the following questions for each idea should help you get closer to making a decision:

• What do you like about the idea?
• What don’t you like about the idea?
• What might the side effects be?
• Is it practical?
• Is it effective?
• Is it cost effective?
• Will be easy to put into practice?
• Can group members do it, or will you need outside help?
• How much time will it take?
• Will it be accepted by everyone involved (i.e. group members, community as a whole)?

Making a final decision

If a thorough discussion doesn’t result in a decision that everyone agrees with, there are several techniques you might find helpful:

Dotmocracy:

Write the potential solutions on flip chart paper and post them where everyone can see. Give each member of the group the same number of sticky dots at least as many as the number of solutions posted) or you can use magic markers to draw dots.

Next, get group members to "vote" on the solutions by placing the dots next to the solution(s) that they think would be most effective. People can distribute their dots between solutions, or they can place them all next to a single solution, according to their preference.

This exercise is particularly effective because it gets people moving, and represents the decision-making process graphically.

Sleep on it

In some cases, you may choose not to decide immediately, or to defer the decision until the next meeting. Some ideas and opinions may change if people are given a little time to mull them over.

Whatever the group decides to do, the facilitator should ask for feedback after the decision has been made. The facilitator can ask if anyone has any suggestions that might make the solution better, and if everyone is completely satisfied with the decision reached.

Defining and analyzing the problem, and generating and choosing solutions are some of the most difficult tasks you will face in your project. Once you’ve made it this far, remember to celebrate what you’ve already accomplished!

This section on defining the issue and developing a solution was based on information contained in the Community Tool Box, http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/tools/en/tools_toc.htm Chapter 2, Section 3: Analyzing Community Problems, Berkowitz, B. Chapter 10a, Section 5: Defining and analyzing the problem. Nagy, J. Chapter 10a, Section 6: Generating & choosing solutions. Nagy, J. and Axner, M.

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