Giving someone that is blind glasses with intentions to better their eyesight probably won’t help. Giving an alarm clock to a deaf person with the intentions of helping them wake up on time wouldn’t be the best solution. I am sure there are many more examples in which the intentions of helping others doesn’t actual end up helping or solving problems. The main reason for the examples above won’t result in helping those individuals comes from not actually understanding and critically analyzing the problem in the first place.
The United States has offered many governmental aid and
passed different laws in an effort to sustain individual’s livelihood that cannot
afford to live on their own financially. However as discussed in the book
called The Truly Disadvantaged, the
problems associated with people that lived in poverty increased after these governmental
interventions. Looking at the example of the individual that was blind, we
first have to identify what could be the possible issues they may encounter.
The first step is to identify if there is a problem. If the blind person says
there is no problem and they are living comfortably than our quest is over.
However, if the blind person says that it is difficult for them to navigate around
their home then we can start looking for a solution. The second step is to understand
what it means to be blind and know if there could be differences amongst other
people considered blind. Then we ask the person what they know about their
condition. For our example, the person tells us that they have been informed by
the doctor that they are legally blind and lost the ability to use their eyes completely.
Then we move on to the third step which is to get as much background information
on the person. We will try to find out when they got blind, how much do they
know about their condition before and after they found out they were blind, what
could have caused their blindness, etc.
This part of the step is vital and the more questions asked
the better. One possibility could be that they were blind since they were born and
have found ways to move around their home but recently moved so they are having
trouble getting used to their new home. Another possibility could be that they
lost their eyesight due to a fireworks incident and have no idea to adjust to
their new condition. There would be completely different approaches to either
of these situations.
After gathering all the information you can from the person
then we can move on to the fourth step which is finding out what has been done,
researched or any other information that there is on this persons particular
case. Then the fifth step follows which is to implement a possible solution. The
sixth step is to assess and evaluate how the possible solution is working for
the person. If the solution works perfectly then you are done but if it doesn’t
then we move on to step eight. Step eight would be to analyze why the solution
did not work and use that information along with the gathered information and
try a different solution. Then the final step nine would be to repeat steps
eight until there is a solution that works.
If every problem was approached this way it is a possibility
many issues would have been resolved by now. The only issue to this is finding
out the true intentions behind those who intend to help and what they would
gain from it. I believe that this is also why many issues have not be resolved
today.
Wilson, William Julius 1987.The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. University of Public Press
