Client stories: working with a new target group

Bayer healthcare contacted us and asked us to do some work with Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Having to adapt to a target group that we had never worked with, and a context that is not the easiest, it was a challenging but immensely rewarding and successful project. The full report, from Helene Theron:

Developing mental and emotional health

When we think of pharmaceutical companies we often think huge companies researching the latest medical cures and making the drugs we buy at our local Clicks store; but Bayer Healthcare invests in their patients in some new and innovative ways. Their aim is not only to focus on patients’ illnesses but on their broader mental and emotional health. When I first received a request from Bayer to work with a group of Multiple Sclerosis Patients, my initial reaction was mixed. There was excitement at the possibility of making a difference for a new target group, but also fear about what challenges working in such a sensitive area would bring. CONTRACT SA is often complemented for our chameleon-like skill to fit right into an environment, speak its language, and feel its culture. Over the past 20 years, the way we relate to the clients’ environment and getting ‘into their world’ has become somewhat of a trademark for CONTRACT. But this was a challenge I had never faced before. How would I ever be able to do this with Multiple Sclerosis patients? I am a healthy woman, a sporty woman who enjoys adrenalin-inducing sports such as rock climbing, Kung Fu and sky diving. None of which are even remotely possible for people who have been diagnosed with an inflammatory disease affecting the nervous system such as MS. I felt guilt (“who am I to speak to them when I have no idea what they are going through…”), and anxiety (“how will they respond to me?”) as well as huge amounts of caution from my side. I knew that the brief was to develop a workshop which would NOT treat the delegates as ‘patients’ but as human beings – but would I be able to relate the content and activities to their world? Would I be able to concentrate on working with and focussing on their ‘healthy mind’, whilst at the same time acknowledging that their ‘non-healthy’ bodies were also a huge part of their story and could neither be ignored or exclusively focussed on. During my preparation, I was careful to be sensitive to my delegates’ environment and physical condition. With many delegates in wheelchairs, some not able to even see me, and others not being able to concentrate for extended periods of time, I developed what I hoped was an engaging workshop process and built in breaks every 30-40 minutes. On reflection, the workshops held in Durban, in Pietermaritzburg, and in Cape Town, turned out to be the most challenging but also some of the most rewarding workshops I have ever facilitated. Asking the delegates to think of success stories in their lives was a stretch for me as well as for them. All they had ever thought of was ‘life after being diagnosed’’, but once we actually got to it, delegates had the most moving insights – about how they had completely given up and forgotten about the things that ARE good in their life. There were realisations and rediscoveries about strengths that delegates thought they had ‘lost’. A common theme was “I used to be confident and since I have been diagnosed, I have lost it – but who says I cannot be confident in some areas of my life right now”. The delegates started creating a new mental reality that could stand right next to their physical reality. It was not about replacing one with the other, or ignoring the physical reality delegates’ found themselves in, but about adding a dimension that many had lost down the line but seemed determined to re-connect with. We ended the workshop by acknowledging – each other, and acknowledging ourselves. And as with every other group that I have facilitated, it was wonderful to see their faces light up. The delegates were moved and their emotional ‘tanks’ were filled to the brim once the group started pointing out strengths and beautiful aspects of everyone in the room. And as I listened to people ‘checking out’, I was grateful and moved to realise once again that no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, at the end we are all human. The feedback was phenomenal. Delegates reported that previously, Multiple Sclerosis had come to define all of who they are, they now saw it as only ONE PART of them. The other parts were aspects of themselves that they felt able to rediscover. Without sounding over-dramatic about it, the experience with the groups humbled me as a person and enriched me as facilitator. I now look back and understand my initial concern and anxiety especially as I have never walked a mile in their shoes. The beauty of our session was that we collectively realised that it doesn’t matter where we find ourselves, or what circumstances we find ourselves in. The truth is, we ALL have similar needs.