Advocacy for the Homeless and the Poor in the US lacks the Clients' Dimension

I was invited to express my point of view on the plight of the homeless on February 22, 2018 at a convened session of the US Congressional Council on Homelessness at Miriam's Kitchen.  My comments centered about the way the homeless have been contained within certain areas of a city or town, e.g., Oklahoma City, and huddled into shelters at night, leaving the daylight hours to fen for themselves out of the dilemma that has wreaked chaos in their lives.  They're supplied with road maps and told to find the one that's suitable to pursue out of their quandry.  What will spell success back into the mainstream of society, where they are currently not welcome in their present physical and mental condition, is left to the individuals to determine on their own.

I contend they cannot go it alone.  Yes, there are advocacy groups that supply information about housing, shelter, food and clothing for them.  These groups also plead with legislators and city, state and federal politicians to "remember the homeless."  Such demonstrations of concern do not fall on deaf ears.  The public at large wants the homeless to live on, but not in their backyards or in their neighborhoods!

So, there's public concern and seemingly, no direct involvement insinuating the homeless into the community-at-large in appreciable measure.  That gap can be remedied through the infusion of case managers, each of whom should handle a caseload of homeless clients in the journey from homelessness to full acceptance into a community prepared to welcome them.

For instance, there are stages of going from homelessness to becoming a member of the community in full standing.  These include getting an ID within the community in which they are homeless, establishing a relationship with human and social services, ultimately leading to finding a place to live, i.e., to call "home."  At each stage, the homeless should be able to call upon an advocate that will stand with them to assure that each case is being attended to in prompt fashion.  But the role of  case managers that provide individuals they represent the care and effort toward full acceptance in the community is not being highlighted in the scenario upwards.       

Think how important this role of advocacy is in these steps the homeless must take.  He needs medical attention.  The case manager can assist in this effort; and when an appointment error is made--which happens all the time--the case manager knows how to get the communication back on track between medical service and client pronto!  That repartee between a case manager, skilled in dealing with representatives of "the system" and the client the manager represents is a significant lack by agencies that send a client on his own with a myriad of information and contact numbers! 

What is in existence now is a presentation and offering to clients that does not demonstrate an interest nor concern for their especial needs beyond that of a concerned citizen.  Specifically, clients receive little help in dealing with the people and situations that will spell their success toward becoming  full-fledged members of the community (once again).             

Critiquing an American Indian's Work of Art

Last weekend, the National Art Gallery, Washington, DC, held a series of symposia on works of art of the American Indian genre.  To my mind the striking feature of American Indian art that came out from their analysis of the art discussed was its illusive ability to succumb to art criticism.  Any particular work of art cast in that genre appeared incapable of evaluation by the art critics that cited it except for a self-serving comment of how "perfect it had been wrought" by the artist.  Actually, because the creation of a work of art in American Indian style is simply a step among several leading to a curative condition of a patient for whose benefit the work came into existence/  Among the sequence is 1)identification of the patient's malady, 2) a recognition of the gods who should be invoked to provide remedies, 3) using sands, etc. create the likeliness of them onto a backdrop cloth through an artist's hands, 4) call for these gods in representation to evoke a cure upon the patient; and 5) record any positive effect upon him.  Any beneficial effect counts toward the physical response a cure.

My friend Chuck refers to the entire process 1-5 as enumerating the metaphysical critique of healing.  It acknowledges the curative effect wrought by the gods of the spirit world connected through the painting to achieve a miracle.  A work of art so adjudged becomes known as part of valid Indian art, i.e, the process whereby the spirit world of the psychical is.connected to the physical for purposes of healing the body and the soul of a living John Doe.  And referring to any one step in the sequence is merely calling forth a perfection in the execution of the whole, metaphysical procedure.  The procedure is  divine; and the cure is holy--accomplished through creating in the art a relation between the eternal and sublime; and the transitory by the artist's hands. 

Thus, only if the art work achieves the goal of a patient's health is it a true work of Indian art.