8 minutes
Who is missed — and who is overused Empty chairs are data. Map whose unpaid work we skip counting, and whose people we never ask for.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “Who is missed — and who is overused” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to Family and Natural Support Systems. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should happen before the work is locked? Document a next step for Who is missed — and who is overused: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. Ask who never gets named: fathers, siblings, friends, chosen family, neighbors, people with no living relatives. What the work actually shows Who we count and who we dump on are not even. Mothers and daughters-in-law carry silent nights. Fathers and brothers are often not asked. Chosen family and friends are treated as unofficial. People of color and immigrant families get used as interpreters. Tribal kinship gets flattened into “mom.” People with no family get written as empty — then isolated.
In this lesson Map who is overused and who is never invited.
Treat chosen family as family when the person says so.
See how race, language, and kinship stack in the note.
Name the harm of “no natural supports” as a closed file.
If only one tired relative is on the page, you do not have a circle. You have a single point of failure.
Who is usually missing People with no living family — or no safe family Write the truth. Then look for friends, faith, neighbors, and paid support that is real. Do not leave a blank and call it assessment.
Chosen family and friends A partner, a roommate, a church friend. If the person wants them, they are natural supports. “Not legal” is not a reason to leave them in the hall.
Fathers, brothers, and people we do not ask We default to the woman who already said yes once. Ask the whole set. Some will say no. That no is useful.
Tribal kinship and immigrant families Kinship may not match a metro nuclear-family form. Ask. Consult. Do not use a child as the interpreter and the night shift.
The people we call “too involved” are often the people they already chose. Who is missing? A mother listed for every gap, never asked about a limit.
Choose a category Overused / not asked Never invited Place / kinship A chosen partner left out of planning.
Choose a category Overused / not asked Never invited Place / kinship A Tribal member’s aunt written as “family friend, unofficial.”
Choose a category Overused / not asked Never invited Place / kinship A child used as interpreter at every meeting.
Choose a category Overused / not asked Never invited Place / kinship A greater-Minnesota adult with “no natural supports” and no look at church or neighbors.
Choose a category Overused / not asked Never invited Place / kinship Check matches Reset Next: two honest frames — family-as-staff versus person-names-circle — and when a legal path is real.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether who is missed — and who is overused changes a live DHS process connected to Family and Natural Support Systems or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Carry this forward Empty chairs are data. Map whose unpaid work we skip counting, and whose people we never ask for.
You control whether who is missed — and who is overused changes a live DHS process connected to Family and Natural Support Systems or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response, a completed sort and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
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Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice Family is not a staffing plan — ask who they want, name the unpaid work, put respite on the page.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
