Moral Distress
Moral distress refers to the specific unease or pain that occurs when people:
Behave in a way that goes against their own morals, or fail to act and do what they believe is the ‘right thing’ or
Witness someone else’s behaviour that they find immoral or
Experience betrayal from another person, organisation or group
Moral injury is the lasting or more severe impacts that can occur due to these.
‘Moral distress’ as a concept was created largely in response to institutional constraints[1]. It was born out of a recognition of the barriers that existed for people in nursing roles when confronted with limits of the institutions they were working in e.g. the power dynamics that prevented them from speaking up, the legal and regulatory pressures they faced as well as a lack of resources that made providing a high quality of care unmanageable.
Moral distress is especially pertinent to the context of detention.
People are often morally driven to visit. However, once they begin visiting, they might find they are unable to help in the ways that they wish to: limited by their roles, the structures in place and power of the system. Visitors also have to navigate the ethical tension of operating within a system they perceive as unjust and engage with flawed processes that often don’t lead to the desired outcome for the individual they are visiting.
All of this can lead to moral distress which might occur when you witness someone being detained arbitrarily; see poor quality of healthcare; in instances of abuse/neglect; when do you not have the resources or qualifications to provide more comprehensive support or when you must break confidentiality. Read more here about the Harms of detention: what safeguarding concerns do visitors come across in detention?
It is also important to note that while you might not be able to visit without any moral tension or dilemma, these experiences can also be transformed into moral resilience and moral satisfaction.
When you are confronted with moral issues, you are better able to discern ethical challenges, nurture your ability to take principled and courageous action and to come into a stronger sense of your own values.
This is also where it can be helpful to be connected with a visitor group and our visitor community (the AVID Network). While the role of a visitor can at times feel quite small and individually focused, it is through this collective work that we are able to address the larger and systemic issues that often lead to moral distress.
“It's hard, every time I walk out of the visits hall, and the lady I'm visiting walks back into Yarl's Wood, and I think why? Why is this me? And I go home, and watch TV, or read a book, or visit friends - all these things I'm free to do, and they're not free. And that hits me every time I leave Yarl's Wood. But it's so important, and they tell me what I'm doing is so valued, that I think, if I let it get on top of me and decided to stop befriending because it was too much, I think that would be letting people down, so you've just got to keep going.”
Alison from Hidden Stories: Commemorating 20 years of supporting immigration detainees (2014)
“One of the things I thought, half way through my visiting time, I thought 'are we doing enough? Is this enough? Is it not just something that appeases my conscience but doesn't do much good?' I realised that first of all, people who are in detention are very, very grateful. It seems little to us but to them it is a lot. So we do make an impact but also it is important that we take their stories out of Dungavel. There is no other way for these stories and for these people to get out. They are in Dungavel, locked up in the middle of nowhere. Most people that live possibly a mile away from Dungavel don't even know it's there. So I think that is a very important role that we have. But also the friendship, we get so many people that tell us how wonderful it is to see us there. And to have that little bit of normality, and outside life, instead of an institution life they lead all the time.”
Giovanna from Hidden Stories: Commemorating 20 years of supporting immigration detainees (2014)
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