The implications of disability protests for social work practice

This article examines the demands which have been made in the over 800 US protests this author has analyzed. Some demands are cross-disability, meaning they could apply to people with all types of impairments; these include demands for rights and accessibility in all domains. Other demands are disability-specific: they apply to people with specific types of impairments, ranging from mobility impairments to developmental disabilities. Many demands have been related to services, which can be either cross-disability or disability-specific. The paper examines the implications of these demands for social work practice. These include that disability be de-stigmatized by practitioners, that people with disabilities have choices, that they have control over their services, and that all aspects of social work practice be accessible to people with any type of disability.     

Social Work Strategies and Tactics in the Workplace

Abstract

Those social workers who offer employment services can frame job development and placement as a process of workplace socialization in which they facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream work settings. This paper examines the construct of workplace socialization and offers five specific strategies and related tactics for its facilitation in the context of social work practice in disability and rehabilitation.     

Unemployment Duration and Disability: Evidence from Portugal

This paper studies the relationship between having a disability and unemployment duration by focusing on individuals registered at Portuguese job centers. Despite its relevance, because disabled people are likely to occupy disadvantaged positions in the labor market, it has received little attention in the literature. As different disabilities affect unemployment duration differently, we distinguish different types of disabilities and shed light on disability-specific support policies. We apply a discrete time hazard model with unobserved heterogeneity to microdata from the Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, which are free from self-reporting problems in disability identification. We find lower reemployment probabilities for many groups of disabled people: individuals with impairment in general functions, disfiguring, speech and visual disorders, muscle-skeletal and other organ impairments experience the more disadvantaged positions. Decomposition analysis indicates that part of the disadvantage is due to differences in returns rather than to differences in characteristics. These findings suggest that the disadvantage of disabled people in the labor market is not only explained by a different distribution of characteristics but especially by the interaction of their characteristics with the work environment. Policy implications are discussed.     

Toward a Holistic View of Health and Health Promotion in Social Work with People with Disabilities

Abstract

The individual medically oriented model of disability suggests that people with disabilities seldom achieve health and wellness because of their impairments and disabilities. This paper provides an alternative to the tendency in social work to focus on the medicalization of disability without a due consideration of the social context. It draws insights from the social model that asserts disability is a form of social restriction encountered by people with disabilities and that social barriers of disability must be removed through collective action. Also, this model posits that people with disabilities can be healthy if the barriers preventing good health are removed. However, medical aspects of a person with a disability should not be forsaken entirely. Therefore, this article proposes a holistic view that converges insights of the individual and social models toward a better understanding of health issues for people with disabilities. It shows the implications for social work that follow from the convergence.     

Public Documents and Legislation: The South Australian Juvenile Courts Act, 1971, and Community Welfare Act, 1972

Abstract

This study of social work practice and disability follows the history of two fields of disability: mental illness and intellectual disability. Of particular interest are two key policy influences in the disability sector, deinstitutionalisation and normalisation. The extent to which deinstitutionalisation and normalisation have brought real benefit to people with disabilities is examined from social workers' perspectives. The implementation of these policies and practices on the daily work of social workers is discussed. This research indicates that social work practice in these two fields involves significantly different foci and approach. The study found that the similarities and differences between the two fields of practice are influenced by the historical and contemporary developments in the care and control of people with disabilities.     

Disability Services and College Students with Psychiatric Disabilities

Abstract

Weiner (1999) has suggested that the process of accepting a disability and its associated limitations is often protracted for students with psychiatric disabilities, thus leaving many students unable to fully participate in services or in the design of academic accommodations. This research examines the relationship between psychiatric disability identity and use of academic accommodation services for 57 undergraduates with psychiatric impairments who are experiencing problems in their academic functioning. Willingness to utilize services was related to students' identification as having a psychiatric disability. Social work interventions are needed to support students in accepting psychiatric disabilities while concurrently crafting necessary accommodations.     

Variations in Provider Capacity to Offer Accessible Health Care for People with Disabilities

Abstract

Since social workers are likely to practice in a range of health care settings, their training focusing on human behavior in the social environment could help providers develop strategies to improve access to care for people with disabilities. In this article, results from a comprehensive survey of providers about access to health care for people with a broad range of disabilities are reported. Results suggest that a minority of providers report difficulty serving people with disabilities. However, dentists and mental health/substance abuse providers are significantly less likely than other providers to report that they provide accessible services to individuals with disabilities. These providers are less likely to report having had training related to mobility impairments, providing mirrors at their facility, having an accessible door, or providing assistance with personal care needs, and are more likely to report that their building poses a barrier for people with disabilities. Social workers are well positioned to take a leadership role in working with providers and patients to improve access to health care for people with disabilities. A social work framework of understanding the individual in a social environment may be the most appropriate perspective for creating innovative strategies for addressing the complex, multidimensional needs of people with disabilities who experience limited access to care.     

How Far to Gay? The Politics of HIV in Learning Disability

This paper examines work in sexual health and HIV prevention in services for people with learning disabilities from a political stance associated with the rehomosexualisation of AIDS in Britain. Arguments are made for the re-homosexualisation of AIDS in services for people with learning disabilities, based on evidence of where HIV risk lies in relation to men with learning disabilities who have sex with men. This provides an opportunity to critically review approaches and responses to HIV risk assessment and risk management in services for people with learning disabilities, with reference to the assumptions which underpin practice and issues of sexual identity. The case is made for a more radical sexual politics in learning disability to help combat HIV and to provide more realistic approaches to service commissioning and safer sex education. Pointers for service development and key areas where the re-homosexualisation of AIDS can inform practice and resource development are also provided.     

Knowledge,Tasks and Strategies for Teaching About Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

Persons with disabilities are a distinct and insular minority group within the United States. Given the fact that social workers offer critical social services to this group, it is important for social work programs to offer meaningful curriculum content on persons with disabilities. This article presents key issues that social work educators should find useful for teaching about persons with disabilities. Specifically, a discussion is offered on the disability civil rights movement, the culture of disability, models for defining disability, knowledge areas on disability issues, teaching tasks and strategies for focusing on persons with disabilities.     

Social work field education: believing in supervisors who are living with disabilities

Much of what is written by non-disabled authors about living with disabilities does not mirror people’s experiences or opportunities. Literature is often written about people’s abilities (or disabilities) rather than by or with people. Discourse about supervision of social work students can risk assuming that supervisors are people who do not identify as living with disabilities. This research is a co-operative inquiry into the experience of being an Australian social work student supervisor who is living with disabilities. The article extends the literature about being a social work field educator to include ability, and values the practice wisdom of experienced social workers including a current student supervisor who is living with a disability.     

Austerity and the lives of people with learning disabilities. A thematic synthesis of current literature

Abstract

The Financial Crisis of 2008 resulted in many western economies implementing cuts in health and social care. This systematic review provides a holistic picture of the impact of austerity policy on the lives of people with learning disabilities (LD) and the collateral effects on the people who support them. Our review suggests that in the current climate of economic austerity, available funding to support people with LD is no longer aligned to their care needs. Cuts in disability services have adversely affected the well-being both of people with LD and their informal carers. Individuals with LD have lost social support and are experiencing increased social isolation. Heightened demands on family carers’ time have negatively influenced their wider roles, including parental functioning, and labour market participation. Our review provides the foundations for further discourse and research on the effects of austerity on people with LD and their family carers.     

Supporting the Well-Being of People with Mobility Disabilities Through Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this insight generating study was to explore the viewpoints of people with mobility disabilities (PWMD) about ways for social workers to promote their well-being through social work practice. A qualitative participant action style methodology encouraged PWMD to voice their concerns and recommendations. Eighteen PWMD were interviewed, including nine consumers and nine social workers. Participants indicated from their experiences that social workers commonly are not sufficiently cognizant of the personal goals, perspectives, and health potentials of PWMD. Overall, they suggested that the social work practice approach for people with disabilities should become more holistic and proactive. Their recommendations are consistent with current ideas about best practice in the social work and disabilities literature and they reinforce the importance of making these ideas more widely practiced.     

The continuum of dependent family care: a theoretical explanation and model

ABSTRACT

Caring for dependents with disabilities and how this type of care differs from the care of typically developing dependents has largely remained unaddressed in the work–family literature, partly because of a lack of theoretical development on the concept of dependent family care. Studies examining dependent family care often apply a life course perspective, missing key disability factors influencing dependent family care demands and need for resources. This article develops a theoretical framework of dependent family care that accounts for both typical care, which follows the life course trajectory, and exceptional care, which follows a disability trajectory. We position dependent family care as based on a continuum, achieved by adapting life course theory, family adjustment to chronic illness, ecological systems theory, stigma theory and the social model of disability into a model. We explain how dependent family care occurs and what contributes to whether one is engaging in typical or exceptional care. We draw broad constructs representing predictors of different types of dependent family care. We provide specific examples to illustrate how one might test theoretical propositions, an agenda for further research and discuss implications for family–work–community research and practice.     

Variations in provider capacity to offer accessible health care for people with disabilities

Since social workers are likely to practice in a range of health care settings, their training focusing on human behavior in the social environment could help providers develop strategies to improve access to care for people with disabilities. In this article, results from a comprehensive survey of providers about access to health care for people with a broad range of disabilities are reported. Results suggest that a minority of providers report difficulty serving people with disabilities. However, dentists and mental health/substance abuse providers are significantly less likely than other providers to report that they provide accessible services to individuals with disabilities. These providers are less likely to report having had training related to mobility impairments, providing mirrors at their facility, having an accessible door, or providing assistance with personal care needs, and are more likely to report that their building poses a barrier for people with disabilities. Social workers are well positioned to take a leadership role in working with providers and patients to improve access to health care for people with disabilities. A social work framework of understanding the individual in a social environment may be the most appropriate perspective for creating innovative strategies for addressing the complex, multidimensional needs of people with disabilities who experience limited access to care.     

The Effect of Social Work Education and Self-Esteem on Students' Social Discrimination of People with Disabilities

Social work education on disability content has become more important due to political changes in the last two decades. The United States protected people with disabilities from discrimination in community and employment settings with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. These changes have empowered people with disabilities to become more independent; however, social workers primarily fulfill roles as case managers, and often make decisions for people with disabilities. This is not consistent with the empowerment perspective embedded in the disability movement. Most social work schools have minimal courses covering disability content. Previous research and the Self-Esteem Hypothesis indicate that social work education, social proximity to people with disabilities, self-esteem and other demographic characteristics are associated with social discrimination, or attitudes, toward people with disabilities. Social work students (n = 73) participated in a survey in the last semester of their program to assess how these characteristics were associated with their attitudes towards people with disabilities. A multiple linear regression revealed that social work education preparedness to work with people with disabilities, an MSW education, self-esteem, and having a friend with a disability were significantly associated with students' social discrimination towards people with disabilities.     

Disability Through the Lens of Culture

ABSTRACT

Effective social work requires cultural sensitivity and competency. Until recently, there was little discussion of culture outside of the contexts of race or ethnicity. This article is an exploration of the key components of culture with application to the community of people with disabilities. The language, history, stigmatization, economic concerns, common behaviors, and practices of people with disabilities are highlighted. A literature review of sensitivity and competency in cross-cultural practice is provided. The article furnishes insights into the lived experience of disability. Suggestions to help practitioners reduce the risks of harm and improve service to this population are presented. Content on disability culture is proposed for social work educators to infuse into core curriculum or add to diversity electives.     

Examining More Inclusive Approaches to Social Work,Physical Disability,and Sexuality

People with disabilities often experience the idea that those with disabilities are not, or should not be, sexual beings. This article examines how people with physical disabilities define sexual activity, their levels of sexual satisfaction, group differences in how people define different acts as sexual activities, and the differences in levels of sexual satisfaction. Additionally, this study (N?=?450) looks at the correlations between levels of independence in multiple contexts. Levels of independence are also assessed in relationship to severity of disability and sexual satisfaction. Implications for social work and social service practice, education, and policy are discussed.     

Differences in Experiences of Discrimination in Accessing Social Services Among Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Individuals by (Dis)Ability

Transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals frequently experience discrimination and potentially a lack of respect from service providers, suggesting they have decreased access to professionals with cultural competency. Similarly, people with disabilities experience higher levels of discrimination in social services than their nondisabled counterparts. From an intersectional perspective, this study examines rates of discrimination in accessing social services faced by transgender and GNC people, comparing across ability. Data indicate that although transgender and GNC individuals of all abilities experience gender-based discrimination when accessing social services, those with disabilities experience higher levels of antitransgender discrimination in mental health centers, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters.     

Interpersonal violence against people with disabilities: understanding the problem from a rural context

Interpersonal violence against people with disabilities is a significant social problem. Little attention has focused on the rural context and the relevance for understanding violence. Given the dearth of literature exploring interpersonal violence, disability, and rurality, a review of rural-focused literature on domestic violence, sexual violence, and elder abuse was conducted to identify themes that could provide insight into this problem for people with disabilities. Themes include geographic isolation, traditional cultural values and norms, lack of anonymity, lack of resources, and poor response of systems. Implications for understanding interpersonal violence against rural people with disabilities and for social work practice are discussed.