The Saviour Complex...
/As I have mentioned several times before, the Veteran support landscape in the UK is huge; with Facebook, twitter, Linked In and a plethora of other social media groups being added everyday. All purport to offer dedicated support to veterans in need. I don’t think anyone is able to accurately assess how many service related support groups actually exist or how they replicate or duplicate each others services as its an ever changing landscape. What I do know is that there is no quality control on the effectiveness of services on offer or indeed evidence of those delivering front line services are assessed as to their ability to offer quality care to those with multiple and complex needs. Its a complex world when one has to deliver and/or access the professional services that can truly help individuals in need move on with their lives. Its interesting that peer led and/or mutual interest support groups are frequently ignored, despite having a key role connecting veterans to the communities in which they live. Everyday I see the larger military charities and at times Government following the lead of the grassroots organisations by taking up causes they had previously ignored. For example. Suicide, Homelessness, gambling , addiction, women veterans, support for minority groups etc
Veterans issues are multiple and complex as is the desire of many of those that want to help support them. We all have a touch of the “Saviour Complex”. Yet, like it or not, many of the larger service charities dismiss the role community based organisations play and in Westminster I’ve heard the service support landscape described as the ‘Wild West’. Yet its clear practice wise that larger organisations have lost their way and all are having an identity crisis as they try desperately to reinvent themselves after years of being the ‘go to’ organisations on veterans issues. These days its those charities that ambush ideas and bushwhack best practice which they present as their own. Anyway it is what it is! Moving on…
Someone defined the Saviour Complex as;
“A psychological construct which makes a person feel the need to save other people. This person has a strong tendency to seek people who desperately need help and to assist them, often sacrificing their own needs for these people.”
The reality is, that if you work in the caring profession you are very lightly to have a touch of the saviour complex anyway. It comes with the territory. The problems arise when the need to give back overwhelms the lives of the volunteer service provider. Trying to save those that don’t want to be saved or being so giving of yourself and time that one becomes emotionally and physically exhausted, all create their own problems. The business of trying to ‘save people’ doesn’t allow individuals to develop problem solving skills for themselves or promote personal responsibility or emotional resilience. If you are involved in this work you should frequently ask yourself if you are trying to help people because its essential that you do… or is it about making yourself feel better. Tough choices.
