They find the lack of urgency puzzling and infuriating. They are at risk of burn out because the same few people are asked to sit on lots of committees. And, of course, clients are often poor and lack the supports that many service providers take for granted. These supports may be as dramatic as lacking proper housing, and thus a safe place to keep an agenda, to not having money to take local transportation to meetings, or to buy lunch when other committee members are eating. Client involvement doesn't always feel good to service providers, either.
Clients can be emotional and confrontational.
Agendas get abandoned, strong words are exchanged. Service providers don't want to be made to feel guilty for all the social and economic ills of our society. It's a common problem when people try to work together across differences. There are several approaches to increasing client involvement and to making it feel better for the clients involved. One is to increase the number of people involved through outreach and leadership training.