The Back Rhino Effect

I’ve had many discussions with professionals who have difficulties relating to the influence they have with the people they work with. I currently have two third year social workers on placement with me at the Young Carers Service at Off the Record in B&NES. I am their practice educator whilst they are with me, part of my job is to help them identify their influence whilst they are practising. In one supervision I told the story of the black rhino effect.

In 2000 I went on my safari in South Africa. I went with the lady from the back packers who had been running safaris to Kwa Zulu Natal Park for many years. While we were driving along we stopped and watched a little black rhino playing out in the open for about half an hour. He was playing with the Water Buffalo and wandering around quite happy with the several cars which were now sitting and watching. Our guide tried to impress on us how unusual this was and that in all the years that she had been a guide she had only ever caught brief glimpses of black rhinos. Usually they are very shy and spend most of their time in thick bush. She said that now we would think this kind of thing happens all the time and not realise how lucky we were to see such a rare and unusual event. Because she impressed this on us so strongly I had some idea of the enormity of what we were seeing. However, another part of me has only my experience to go on and to think that black rhinos do just run around in front of your vehicle when you are on safari for half an hour.

I said to my student that a piece of work she had done where young carers for the first time had shared with their peers their most intimate experiences of looking after a parent with a severe and enduring mental illness was like the black rhino effect. Because this had been the first time she had done a workshop like that and they had all been so open and honest she can’t help but assume they are always like that. As the manager of the service for 4 years I know how rare and important that event had been. However much I impressed on her the significance of her role in that she was suffering from the black rhino effect.

Unlike the black rhino all professionals who work with people are not jst coming across a chance event. They are the one who is enabling something to happen and although we are quick to point to intuition or good planning or good luck we are very slow to point to our influence. I recognised that in our mental well health day every child and young person there opened up because each of the professionals used there influence to create a safe and confidential space where their stories were each valued both as individual stories and group experiences. Had any one of the professionals not set the tone or made the children and young people feel unsafe the event would have been very different.

Without thoughtful and honest reflection all our successes as professionals will be black rhino effects. However special those moments are we will have no clarity about the influence we are having and will neither know how to replicate them nor how to support others to do the same.

Sonia Hutchison 18/03/09