Community-based arts research for people with learning disabilities: challenging misconceptions about learning disabilities

This article presents some of the community-based artwork of a group of men with learning disabilities, who aimed to challenge some of the misconceptions associated with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities regularly face many forms of direct and indirect stigma. The consequences of such negative perceptions may affect individuals’ social relationships and ensure that barriers are strengthened which prevent their full inclusion. The men in this project used a series of visual and creative methods to challenge some of these misconceptions by telling stories through art, demonstrating skill through photography, using poetry to talk about sexual identity and improvising drama and filmmaking to challenge stigma, and through sculpture expressed their voices. Thus, by doing so, they were able to challenge some of the stigma associated with learning disabilities, indicating that community-based arts research is a valuable way in which to promote the voices of people with learning disabilities.     

Good personal finances or a strong social capital—on different life conditions of importance for an active life when becoming alone in old age

Becoming alone in old age can be a decisive life event that brings major changes depending on various causes as health status, financial resources, family situation, and available welfare services. This article discusses the situation of older people in Sweden who have transitioned from a two-person to single-person household in recent years and what impact this might have on their everyday lives. Through in-depth interviews with 18 older people, age 67–90, their experiences about life conditions and opportunities were examined. Findings showed large differences between the men and women. They all tried to live as they always had done and they used the same personal life strategies that they always had. But the men could live as before on their own financial merits, while the women needed assistance from children, grandchildren and the welfare system. Transportation options were central and clearly related to both private economy and social services available. Shortcomings in the welfare state's way of caring for the elderly were clearly uncovered. The gap between social policy promises of opportunities for autonomy and independence to live an active life in old age and the everyday reality for older people still seems to be wide.     

Whom Should We Serve? A Discourse Analysis of Social Workers’ Commentary on Undocumented Immigrants

We present a discourse analysis of social work practitioners’ commentaries on undocumented immigrants that were collected from a survey of practicing social workers’ attitudes toward immigration and immigrants. Analyzing 198 open-ended comments, we explore the discursive mechanisms practitioners employ to construct undocumented immigrants, and their professional responsibilities toward them. These views are illustrative of the ways in which the profession determines inclusion and exclusion, writ large in national immigration policies and laws and played out in the arenas of social work and social services. Disparate views of practitioners highlight tensions in the profession's relationships to law and social policies as well as to its own ethics and identity.     

Mothering,equality and the individual: Feminist debates and welfare policies in the USA and Sweden

This paper addresses issues raised by ‘welfare reform’ in the USA by using the example of Sweden's women activists in constructing a ‘woman friendly’ welfare state. In the USA, feminist advocates see a tension between the argument that motherhood should be valued by the provision of care allowances, and the view that work should be reformed to meet the needs of parents. This reflects debates about gender difference/equality, the possibility of commonality, and the individual.

The Swedish ‘woman friendly’ welfare state was built on the recognition, through social policy, of the interrelationship among care, material resources, and public voice. The interrelationship was embodied in what I call the ‘social individual’, and articulated in public child care and other policies and collective services. The adequacy of those universal policies and services was frequently judged by the situation of lone mothers, who ceased being ‘deviant’, and often became a model for understanding the interrelationship. Cross-class solidarity among women was a prerequisite for, and was built on, the social individual. This solidarity is now threatened by neoliberal economic and social policies that fragment care, resources, and voice, and therefore the social individual.

It is possible to challenge the downsizing of welfare states by moving the terms of discussion away from the poor as deviant other, acknowledging that all women have much in common with the targets of current policy making. This involves the creation of concrete social policies that embody the relationship among care, resources, and voice, and recognize the inseparability of community, work and family.     

Friends and family: regulation and relationships on the locked ward

This ethnographic project explored the lives of women with learning disabilities on three locked wards. Aspects of these women’s lives were regulated by the service; in particular, relationships with family outside the unit, and peer relationships inside the unit. The women in this study valued these relationships, but they were treated with ambivalence by the service. Success in future community integration and accessing community resources can be dependent on the nature and quality of relationships with others, and therefore services should acknowledge that service-users need to forge relationships of their own choosing.     

When to Work for Pay,When Not to: A Comparative Study of Australian and Danish Volunteer Care Workers

This paper explores the links between volunteers care workers’ current unpaid work and their own present or former paid work with the objective of analysing the ways welfare states influence volunteer care work. Data were collected between August 2012 and May 2013 through 41 face-to-face interviews with Danish and Australian volunteers working with the frail elderly, very sick and terminally ill. Three related arguments are made. One, paid and unpaid care work are so intertwined that it is not possible to understand volunteers’ unpaid working lives without simultaneously understanding their paid work lives. Two, many volunteer care workers are attracted to care work, not volunteering per se. Three, volunteering must be understood in relation to men’s and women’s ‘access to work’ in the welfare state, access that ultimately depends on the design and developments of these two contrasting welfare states.     

The impact of the 2nd intifada on Israeli Arab and Jewish social workers

This paper presents an analysis of interviews with Israeli social workers conducted as part of a study investigating the impact of the 2nd Intifada on the work, clients, views and feelings of Israeli Arab and Jewish social workers. The data were generated from 58 interviews with social workers who volunteered to do so. Coming from a sociological perspective, the study focused on how a violent political conflict impacts on two groups of social workers who live and work in the same society, but are likely to have different views about it. Their actions, views, well-being, and values were researched in a context likely to test universal social work values. The findings document a high level of tension and anxiety generated for both groups, very negative impact on clients’ life and views, largely negative effect on welfare services, co-existing with continuous professional development. Social workers’ views of their own national group and the other national group within the Intifada context highlight primarily the empathy with one's own group while lacking in empathy towards the other group, coupled with suspicion and some hostility. The struggle to maintain professional values is expressed only by a minority. The discussion and conclusions look at what social work can learn from the findings in understanding such complex contexts and the response to the challenge they pose to social work.     

Healthcare for men and women with learning disabilities: understanding inequalities in access

Healthcare for men and women with learning disabilities (known internationally as intellectual disabilities) has risen up the political agenda in the United Kingdom, propelled by a report from the charity Mencap. This report has resulted in renewed efforts, set out in Valuing People Now, to ensure that people with learning disabilities receive the healthcare they are entitled to. This paper, drawing upon experience in England, describes the challenges of providing healthcare to men and women with learning disabilities; reviews Death by Indifference and the reports produced in its aftermath; presents findings from a small-scale study of access to healthcare undertaken in the East of England; and concludes with a discussion of whether the policies in Valuing People Now will improve healthcare for men and women with learning disabilities.     

Processes Employed by Social Work Practitioners in Child Welfare for Exchanging and Using Knowledge

Organisations in the health and social services sector expend a considerable amount of energy promoting the implementation of better practices and research data use in their establishments. In the field of social work, several studies suggest that social work practitioners do not make great use of scientific knowledge and tend to favour knowledge acquired from their colleagues or through their own occupational experience. However, interactions between types of knowledge are rarely analyzed in explanations proposed by the scientific literature. Based on research conducted with social work practitioners in child welfare, this article discusses the different ways that they acquire knowledge.     

Income support policy in Canada and the UK: different,but much the same

This paper examines linkages between women’s experiences in accessing information, services and public policy relating to income support in Canada and the UK. Drawing on narrative interviews, the author finds mothers with disabilities are often embedded in complex relations of care, experiencing both embodied and social barriers. Additionally, by employing critical discourse analysis, it is clear that policy in both contexts is written not only inaccessibly and confusingly, but is directed toward an able‐bodied, independent, resource‐rich ideal citizen. Thus, policy in both contexts is disabling and pathologizing. There are differences in resources that are written into the policy and available through the UK network of Citizen’s Advice Bureaus that would indicate that the UK offers a breadth of services and avenues for advocacy that are unavailable in Canada. Further, the Canadian policy appears to be more adversarial and surveillance‐based than the UK policy.     

Fathers in child welfare: What do social work textbooks teach our students?

Research indicates that fathers in the child welfare system provide benefits to children's well-being and positive development, yet child welfare workers often do not engage fathers in services. Previous studies in Canada and the United Kingdom have found that child welfare training perpetuates negative perceptions of fathers. The current study conducted a content analysis of 217 vignettes in the texts used in required classes for students completing a concentration in child welfare classes in nine schools of social work at the public universities in a Southern U.S. state. Coding was completed independently by three researchers with an inter-rater reliability of 79%. Findings indicated that despite men being the perpetrator in 51% of vignettes, women were portrayed in just over half of vignettes (51%) as the sole caregiver responsible for ensuring the child's safety when the abuse occurred. The data were organized into five themes of how men and women were portrayed in the vignettes: Men as Threat, Men as No Different than Women, Men as Irrelevant, Men as Absent, and Women as Default Clients (the first four suggested by Scourfield (2001), and the last by the researchers). Results indicate that the bias against including fathers in child welfare services reported in other studies seems to start at the beginning of students' learning about child welfare work, in their required textbooks. Recommendations include updating child welfare textbooks to better address the role of men and fathers in children's lives, and increasing professors' and field instructors' awareness of the bias against men and fathers in child welfare.     

The social investment approach as a field of job creation. From the ‘recalibration’ to a resurgent trade-off between employment growth and low wage (white) jobs. A comparison between Germany and Italy

The social investment approach emerged as a new welfare paradigm, aimed at reconciling the traditional functions of the welfare supply with a productive social agenda, designed at preparing people to confront the ‘new social risks’, whether they be related to the problem of balancing paid work and family responsibilities, upgrading the skills, preventing inequalities and promoting the availability of in-kind services. In order to achieve these objectives, especially those related to care needs and work-life balance, the adoption of social investment-based strategies necessarily implies an expansion of the jobs related to health and social care services. In more recent years, many studies have analysed the limitations of the social investment policies because of their different redistributive impacts on social groups. Several studies have found a higher use of these policies for high-income families. Another source of criticism on social investment is that spending on these policies would seem to crowd out more traditional passive social expenditures. In this article, we examine another question related to the widespread of this approach: what are the effects of the social investment policies in terms of direct job creation? In fact, one of the more controversial issues, related to social investment policies, is their direct contribution to the labour market in terms of both quantity and quality of work within welfare services. The article analyses these issues focusing on Germany and Italy, two countries that represent not only two different care regimes but also two distinct models regarding job creation strategies in the care sector. In doing so, particular attention will be paid to long-term care policies, as they represent one of the pivotal areas of the social investment approach, both in terms of social services, to address new social risks, and new jobs related to welfare services     

An Employment Project as a Route to Social Inclusion for People with Learning Difficulties?

Government policy to reduce social exclusion focuses on increasing employment opportunities and incentives, especially for disadvantaged groups. This paper discusses the findings of an evaluation of a project in the North West of England for people with learning difficulties, which sought to create opportunities for paid and/or integrated employment. The findings suggest that this goal can be undermined by many factors such as the isolation of social care services from employers and the disinclination of service organisations to include users, carers and staff in the development of new service approaches. Social welfare policies also mitigate against this aim, by failing to enable providers to translate the rhetoric of social inclusion into a reality. We discuss some of the obstacles preventing people with learning difficulties from inclusion into mainstream employment, by considering their impact upon the achievements of the North West project.     

The morphogenesis of disability policies and the personalisation of social services. A case study from Italy.

Across Europe, and particularly since the 2008 Financial Crisis, new demands for tailor-made services came from different actors and perspectives: user-led organizations, intellectuals, policy makers, social workers, advocacy organizations, which call for a new way of programming, realizing and evaluating social policies. Personalization became a relevant part of the so called ‘welfare innovation narrative’, which concerns – to name but a few – English personalization agenda, Scottish self-directed support, Finnish education system, Norwegian cash-for-care policies. Even the European Commission is addressing new social services, reshaped through users’ capabilities. The aim of this paper is to critically explain, through a case study focused on the Sardinian disability policy, how social policy's morphogenetic cycles influence the governance of personalized disability plans and, consequently, the possibility of their implementation.     

内涵式增权与外生性赋能:社会资本视角下的残疾人社会支持网络构建

残疾人是社会中的弱势群体,需要全社会的共同关注和支持。目前我国残疾人社会支持网络尚不完备,残疾人价值实现仍然面临诸多困境。本文从社会资本视角出发,就如何最大限度地激发残障群体的社会资本、构建以残疾人为中心的社会支持网络,进而实现残疾人的全面发展提出对策和建议。提升残疾人自身能力、促进残疾人社会角色转变和协调残障群体社会互动关系,是激活残疾人社会支持网络的内生动力;而构建多元协同的托养照护模式、完善福利制度供给、培育残障自助组织和推广助残志愿服务则构成了残疾人社会支持网络的外部保障。这种新型社会支持网络的构建,将有利于推动新时代残疾人事业的发展,不断满足残疾人对美好生活的向往。     

Social work students field training as an opportunity to develop best practice in disabilities: the case of Jordan

This article outlines an innovative field for training efforts that foster the abilities of undergraduate social work students so that they are able to empower local communities in disability issues. It discusses the contribution of social work education in improving livelihoods of families with disabled members, challenging families as well as attitudes of local communities towards the disabled. Social work students were placed in a centre for children with developmental disabilities for a period of eight months. At this stage of their training, students were required to demonstrate their skills in working with individuals, families and communities. They were also required to identify opportunities for interventions that addressed stigma and social inclusion. Key outcomes from students’ voices were captured through their field notes, some limited observations and focus group discussions. The field training demonstrated that students managed to establish a support group for mothers with disabled children to provide a safe place to share their experiences. Student outcomes highlighted that the field experience was effective and feedback from families indicated that training raises disability awareness and facilitates women’s access to existing support systems. In addition, it engages professionals and families to work together in developing a long-term strategy to reduce isolation and exclusion, as well as to tackle health and social inequalities in Jordan.     

The elementary-school functioning of children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities: A mixed methods inquiry

This mixed methods inquiry examined the school functioning of elementary school-aged children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. Quantitative analyses of linked social service and education administrative data bases of 10,394 children in Minnesota with maltreatment histories indicated that 32% were eligible for special education services. Of those children with maltreatment histories and identified disabilities, 73% had mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities. The most frequent primary disabilities categories were specific learning disabilities (33%) and emotional/behavioral disabilities (27%). Children with maltreatment histories and mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities scored significantly below children with maltreatment histories and no identified disabilities on standardized assessments of math and reading, and this gap increased with grade level for math. Qualitative interviews with 22 child welfare professionals and 15 educators suggested why some children with maltreatment histories, especially those with mild cognitive or behavioral disabilities, struggle in school. Risks to school functioning included children's and families' multiple unmet basic and mental health needs which can mask or overshadow children's mild disabilities; poor cross systems collaboration between child welfare, education and mental health systems; and inadequate funding, especially for mental health services. Protective factors included child engagement in school, parent engagement with child welfare services and a professional culture of cross-systems collaboration. Implications are discussed for holistic child, family and system-level interventions.     

Not just maternalism: marriage and fatherhood in American welfare policy

The United States' 1996 welfare reforms are often interpreted as a historical break in transitioning from supporting motherhood to commodifiying women's labor. However, this cannot account for welfare reform's emphasis upon heterosexual marriage and fatherhood promotion. The paper traces continuities and shifts in over a century of familial regulation through American welfare policy, specifying the place of marriage promotion within welfare policy. Up until 1996, families were key sites of intervention through which the American welfare state was erected, especially through single women as mothers - not wives. However, as of the 1960s, concern with African American men's "failed" familial commitments turned policymakers toward concern over marriage promotion for women and men. While marriage "disincentives" for aid recipients were lifted in the 1960s, the 1996 reforms structured a new form of nuclear family governance actively promoting marriage rooted in, but distinct from, the previous. Given the historical absence of welfare policies available to poor men, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families' (TANF) marriage promotion policies have positioned poor women as nodes connecting the state to poor men, simultaneously structuring poor women as breadwinners, mothers, and wives. Recent welfare reform has also started to target poor men directly, especially in fatherhood and marriage promotion initiatives. The article highlights how, in addition to workfare policies, marriage promotion is a neoliberal policy shifting risk to the shoulders of the poor, aiming to produce "strong families" for the purposes of social security.     

Rehabilitation Through Work? Disability and the Productivist Road to Participation in the East of Germany1

Abstract Drawing on secondary data and interviews, this paper traces the economic and socio‐cultural roots of contemporary policies to promote full participation of people with disabilities in mainstream German society. Underlying such policies and related practices has been a concept of rehabilitation through work that evolved within a context of labour shortages, Protestant work ethics, and German welfarism at the beginning of the 20^th century and that has yielded rather ambiguous consequences. I argue this elective affinity among economic, cultural, and socio‐political imperatives has undermined potentials for integration and self‐actualization of people with disabilities. Not only was rehabilitation subordinated to a productivist logic and provoked forms of ill‐paid or even forced labour; rehabilitation policies and measures have also been part of a system of social governance that effectively helped to segregate the “able” from the “unable” and that promulgated an ethos of productivism. Significantly, this essentially utilitarian ethos – which rendered health and rehabilitation into a social obligation and valued each wo/man according to his/her fitness and motivation to contribute to socio‐economic development – evolved within capitalism but was equally pronounced in East Germany under state‐socialist rule. Contrary to the egalitarian principles of both “socialist humanism” and “Western enlightenment”, policies and practices trans‐societally focussed on the promotion of those who could – potentially at least – contribute to the regime of industrial production. As the example of East Germany demonstrates, social participation through paid work remains incomplete, at best, and provokes further segregation – even in times of severe labour shortages. The paper concludes that notwithstanding contemporary rhetoric, rehabilitation through work has remained a central pillar of contemporary welfare policies. In times of unbroken structural unemployment, the productivist paradigm and ensuing policies have become increasingly problematic – not only for the inclusion of people with disabilities. Experiences with the productivist modes of participation and with rehabilitation in East Germany suggest a post‐productivist paradigm of inclusion that seeks participation beyond paid work.     

“I Try Not to Depend on Anyone but Me”: Welfare‐Reliant Women's Perspectives on Self‐Sufficiency,Work, and Marriage*

Welfare reformers sought to reduce “dependency,” or reliance on state‐supported cash benefits and deployed a discourse of “self‐sufficiency” to promote the legitimacy of efforts to remove welfare recipients from publicly funded cash assistance through either wage labor or marriage. We use longitudinal, qualitative interview data collected from 38 initially welfare‐reliant women to examine what self‐sufficiency means to them and their perspectives on how work and marriage affect their ability to be self‐sufficient. Grounded theory analysis revealed that for these women, self‐sufficiency means formal independence from both the state (i.e., Temporary Assistance to Needy Families [TANF]) and men (i.e., marriage). Although they value marriage as an institution and would ideally marry, they do not consider marriage to be a likely route to self‐sufficiency given the pool of men available to them. Rather, they embrace their own market‐based wage labor as the means by which they can attain some measure of independence. Taking our lead from the women in this study, we challenge the emphasis on marriage in current welfare policy. We argue that employment training that results in better jobs for women and men and work supports that make low‐wage work pay are clearly the appropriate direction for policy aimed at the welfare‐reliant and working poor.