Final answer:
Practitioners may doubt SDM's efficacy if they believe it is not serving the client's best interests, which can occur due to a deficit-based approach. They must employ adaptability and flexibility to effectively address community challenges.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a practitioner in the field of community psychology, such as Dr. Somerville, believes that a Strengths-Based Decision Making (SDM) approach is not acting in the client's best interests, they face a professional and ethical dilemma. The goal of SDM is to prioritize the client's wishes and values in the decision-making process, often empowering the client and fostering a sense of agency. However, if these decisions appear to be at odds with what the practitioner views as beneficial, the practitioner must navigate this conflict carefully. One approach to understanding why the practitioner might believe SDM is not in the best interest of the client could entail a deficit-based perspective. A deficit-based approach can focus on what is lacking or problematic without recognizing the client's existing strengths and capacities to overcome challenges. As Dr. Somerville noted, the curriculum at Healthy Start was not fully evaluated based on the client experience, which may reflect an oversight of the positive outcomes derived from empowering clients.
Additionally, from a community psychology standpoint, despite the curriculum not being evaluated as initially intended, there may be alternative ways it could still be useful. The curriculum could be adapted and repurposed based on feedback or be utilized as a stepping stone for future interventions with revisions informed by community needs. Adaptability and flexibility, as identified by Dr. Somerville, are critical to this process. To exemplify adaptability, consider a situation in which a community faced a sudden economic downturn, and traditional employment support programs were overwhelmed. Demonstrating flexibility in this scenario could involve repurposing community spaces for job fairs, skill workshops, or creating a peer support system for job seekers, leading to increased community resilience and better outcomes. Finally, envisioning alternate settings for community challenges is a key function of community psychologists.