Personal Assistance for People with Intellectual Impairments: experiences and dilemmas

The article gives an account of how personal assistance is adapted to people with intellectual impairments in Norway and the experiences with the arrangement for this target group. Most space, however, is given to a discussion of the challenges and dilemmas of including people with intellectual impairments in the target group for personal assistance, since other people than the user as a rule fill the role as manager of the service. Special attention is paid to the parents' role since they often act as managers on behalf of their sons/daughters. Furthermore, the assistants' role is discussed and the importance of how they meet the users. Finally, there is a discussion of the consequences the extension of personal assistance to intellectually impaired users might have both for personal assistance as a service and for the ordinary care services.     

Negotiating Clothing Identities on the Sales Floor

How do salespeople negotiate “clothing identities” with customers? To answer this question, I conducted fieldwork in the women's departments of several luxury goods stores in Paris that sell ready-to-wear clothes. In this negotiating context of personalized service, lower-status individuals (salespersons) propose new identities to higher-status consumers. This comparison of how saleswomen and gay salesmen negotiate clothing identities with women customers examines both their identification with the customers and the role-playing involved. The sales area as a “backstage” permits the “expertise” of the sales staff to mitigate the status differences and gives gay male sales staff latitude in their interactions with female clients. Through a construction of clothing identity from articles from the store, saleswomen present an image of possibilities to customers. Playing the role of personal audience, gay salesmen use their ambiguous gender identity to sell clothing.     

Practising partnership--participative inquiry with older people

This paper examines the importance of approaching research with minority groups of older people in an inclusive way. For older people, ageism is a key feature of the discrimination and marginalisation they experience, but some are excluded and marginalised further on the basis of their ethnicity and sexuality. The 'invisibility' of these groups poses a challenge to social workers and social work educators, as assumptions about their experiences and needs may be made which do not reflect the subjective experiences of these older people. The use of Participatory Action Research as a method of including service users in knowledge and theory development will be analysed, and a research proposal undertaken in partnership with a local voluntary agency will be explored. The importance for social work education of pursuing 'inclusive' methods of research so that service users have more power over knowledge produced about their lives, will be discussed.     

TOO LITTLE FEAR CAN KILL YOU. STAYING ALIVE AS A SOCIAL WORKER

This paper provides a psychodynamic exploration of risk assessment of service users who might represent a danger to others and, in particular, to the social workers involved in their care and treatment. Substantive quotations from participants in a qualitative research study enquiring into experiences of fear in social work and counselling are provided and discussed in the light of psychodynamic theory. Fear is seen to be of crucial and life‐enhancing significance while not listening to the ‘survival signals’ transmitted from fear responses is shown to be potentially dangerous, even fatal. The need for workers to locate themselves accurately on the continuum of the depressive/paranoid‐schizoid position is highlighted throughout as is the need for them to appear to disturbed and disturbing service users as whole people rather than part objects. The importance of clearing a space through the fear to think about what is happening between service user and worker is emphasised and the parts played by the eyes and the emotions in this are also considered. The paper concludes with the contention that workers should aim to cultivate an attitude of appropriate fearfulness as this is a helpful albeit complex balance worth striving for.     

Disabled People, Service Users, User Involvement and Representation

The issue of representation and representativeness has become central in debates about user involvement, disabled people and users of social care services. This article examines the emphasis of service agencies on the 'unrepresentativeness' of disabled people and service users; looks at how this is experienced by the latter and considers why the issue has gained such importance. It examines the different meanings attached to representation by recipients and providers of services. As well as looking at how the issue of representativeness is used to devalue, exclude and disempower disabled people and service users, the article explores its relation with the competing participatory and representative models and practices of democracy employed by disabled people and service providers.     

Self-advocacy for People with Learning Difficulties: Does it have a future?

Within such a short-time self-advocacy has become not only fashionable amongst organisations of people with learning difficulties, but also with service providers and non-disabled individuals who have worked in traditional services. The concerns are that self-advocacy has become a process of consulting with users about what they want from services which are usually designed and delivered by non-disabled people. This had led to people recognising and accepting choices that are on offer by non-disabled people. As a consequence an artificial boundary around self-advocacy has been created which has led to people only speaking up about what society is prepared to make available (usually in form of segregated and supervised services) rather than challenging the (lack of) power that people with learning difficulties have in their lives. For people with learning difficulties to gain real change in their personal lives self-advocacy needs to be developed to ensure they not only have the communication skills, but have an appreciation of the importance of changing rules, policies and laws which institutions, local authorities and Governments make to ensure their rights are protected. If they have an appreciation of laws and policies it will result in real change and self-advocacy won't be a tool for service providers. Also, self-advocacy must include speaking up about alternatives to choices being offered, recognising the importance of supporting one another in common areas of concern and to challenge the political system to legislate to provide relevant changes. I have developed a self-advocacy framework model which includes all the elements needed to advocate and achieve permanent change.     

Restoring and Sustaining Home: The Impact of Home Modifications on the Meaning of Home for Older People

ABSTRACT

The importance of a supportive home environment to successful aging has been well-established in the literature, with home modifications increasingly acknowledged as ways of removing barriers to function and increasing independence for older people. Home modification literature and practice primarily focus on the home environment as a physical space in which to perform tasks and on the impact of modification on competencies and function. Home, however, is much more than a physical environment. Within a transactive framework, people and places are seen as engaged in a dynamic, reciprocal relationship through which home becomes a place of significant personal meaning. Through a qualitative framework, this study examines the experience of older people living in the community who are recipients of a home modification service. It explores the impact modifying the physical environment has on their experience of home as a place of meaning and provides insight into how home modifications can strengthen the home as a place of personal and social meaning as well as improve safety and comfort for the older person at home.     

Empowerment, Identity and Participatory Research: using social action research to challenge isolation for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities

This paper considers the practice of empowerment within a social action approach, and the importance of an analysis of issues of identity, for an understanding of the experience of individuals and their communities. The discussion is grounded in the experience of conducting a research project on the 'needs of deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities', living in the London Borough of Merton. The theme of 'isolation' is taken as a focus for the discussion. It was identified by respondents to be of central importance to an understanding of their experience. The Social Model of Disability and the concept of Deaf Culture are used to explore the complex set of relationships that characterise the day-to-day reality for deaf and hard of hearing people from minority ethnic communities, and recommendations are made to assist researchers and service providers in developing a more empowering practice.     

The conception of fashion products for children: reflections on safety parameters

The purpose of this study is to reflect on safety requirements for children's clothing, based on the standardization proposed by the ABNT (Technical Standardization Brazilian Association). Bibliographic research and case studies were considered on writing this work. We also discuss the importance of adding other safety requirements to the current standardization, as well as the increasing of the actual age range specified by the ABNT, following the children's clothing safety standardizations in Portugal and the United States, also stated here.     

Sensitivity Training: Relevance for Social Work Education

Students in undergraduate child welfare services courses were required to interview people in their home communities regarding perceptions of, and attitudes toward child welfare services. The exercise was successful in achieving the objectives of moving the course out of the classroom, increasing knowledge of course content, and providing some practice in interviewing and survey research. Some 4,000 respondents indicated consistency in perceiving some services as more important than others Criteria applied in ranking importance of services included blameability, moral censure, urgency, available alternatives, client vulnerability, service effectiveness, and numbers affected. While most people knew surprisingly little about child welfare services there was considerable public support for such services.     

Changing households in Britain: do families still matter?

The decline in traditional nuclear family households, and the marked increase in the proportion of people living alone, or alone with dependent children have led some to claim that individualism has replaced the importance of family life. In this paper we use data from a large household panel study of Britain to suggest that this is not true. Regardless of people's own household circumstances, family issues and events are clearly top of the agenda of what people consider matter most in their lives. Moreover, in talking about events that mattered, people are almost as likely to talk about something that happened to other family members, as they are to talk about themselves. Surprisingly, people living alone or alone with children are as likely to mention other family members as those who live in family households. Yet the importance of family does vary considerably by gender and age. Women give more importance to family events and events in the lives of other family members than do men. Young people are far more self-centred than older people but whether this is a generational or life-stage difference is open to question.     

Ergonomics, design universal and fashion

People who lie beyond the "standard" model of users often come up against barriers when using fashion products, especially clothing, the design of which ought to give special attention to comfort, security and well-being. The principles of universal design seek to extend the design process for products manufactured in bulk so as to include people who, because of their personal characteristics or physical conditions, are at an extreme end of some dimension of performance, whether this is to do with sight, hearing, reach or manipulation. Ergonomics, a discipline anchored on scientific data, regards human beings as the central focus of its operations and, consequently, offers various forms of support to applying universal design in product development. In this context, this paper sets out a reflection on applying the seven principles of universal design to fashion products and clothing with a view to targeting such principles as recommendations that will guide the early stages of developing these products, and establish strategies for market expansion, thereby increasing the volume of production and reducing prices.     

记忆收藏——一场集体的怀旧

论坛上，关于小时候的玩具、零食、怀旧贴总是一呼百应：网店中，怀旧主题的物品也卖得火爆。最潮的装扮不是奢侈品．而是老回力和海魂衫；最好吃的不是巧克力奶酪和披萨，而是不到一元的跳跳糖和无花果；最好玩的不是网络游戏，而是曾经的铁皮青蛙……今天的怀旧，不是厌世、颓废、消极的怀念，而仅仅是另一种生活方式。     

‘He outfitted his family in notable decency’: Slavery,Honour and Dress in Eighteenth-Century Lima,Peru

For elite Spaniards in eighteenth-century Lima, elegant clothing provided a language for expressing their wealth, status and honour. They frequently made their way around town in the company of elegantly dressed slave attendants, whose presence underscored their owners' privilege. Yet many slaves found opportunities to function as more than mere canvasses for the expression of their owners' identities. Indeed, for a surprising number of slaves, elegant clothing was a key tool with which they negotiated their status and laid claim to their own definitions of honour. By mapping the study of material culture onto the study of slavery, this paper brings into relief the social meanings that clothing contained for slaves, and highlights the possibilities that urban life contained for the creation of social identities that fell outside the social and colour lines drawn by the colonial state.¹     

Being Volunteered? The Impact of Social Participation and Pro-Social Attitudes on Volunteering

While disagreeing over the reasons why the performance of civic obligations seems to be declining, conservatives and liberals agree that people need to be reminded of their duties as citizens for this decline to be halted. But do these exhortations work? This paper tests two theories about how people become volunteers. The “normativist” perspective assumes that volunteer behavior flows from socialization into pro-social attitudes; the “social practice” perspective stresses the formative role of practical experiences and social participation. Using a panel study of high school seniors who were reinterviewed in their mid-20s and again in their early 30s, we show that volunteer work undertaken in high school has long-term benefits as does social participation more generally but that socialization into pro-social attitudes has an even stronger influence on volunteering in middle age. The implications of our study are that mandatory community service programs can boost later volunteer efforts but that socialization into appropriate citizenship attitudes is of equal, if not greater, importance.

     

Pregnancy in a Brotherhood bin: Housing and drug-treatment options for pregnant young women

The research on which this paper is based is part of an Australian Housing Urban Research Institute (AHURI) project using ethnographic research with people using heroin in the cities of Yarra and Geelong (Victoria), Sydney and Cabramatta (New South Wales). More specifically the article reports on the lives of young drug dependent pregnant women and the importance of housing for those wanting to enter drug treatment programs. This involves asking how critical the provision of appropriate housing are for women who choose to ‘get clean’ or who attempt to limit their drug use. An answer is provided by drawing on interview material from the pregnant women themselves as well as a range of health and welfare service providers.     

Choice: what,when and why? Exploring the importance of choice to disabled people

Extending choice and control over public services is central to current policies in England. Such policies have immense potential for independence and well‐being. However, it is still not clear how disabled people conceptualise choices, what choices are important, for which groups of people, in what areas of life and why. This paper presents findings from the first phase of a longitudinal qualitative study of choice and control over the life‐course. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 111 participants including disabled young people with progressive conditions; their parents; adults and older people with fluctuating support needs and those experiencing sudden deterioration in health. The findings suggest that while most people across all study groups wanted to be able to make choices in all areas of their lives, there are significant differences in the importance they attach to specific choices. The findings have implications for service reforms and identify some policy and practice issues that need to be addressed.     

Role-played interviews with service users in preparation for social work practice: exploring students’ and service users’ experience of co-produced workshops

Abstract

Within a Theory and Practice of Social Work module, prior to embarking on practice placements, social work students practised professional communication skills with people who had used social work services. They undertook role-played interviews with service users about real issues, which had led individuals to seek assistance in the past. Using principles of co-production, the workshop was developed in partnership with members of the University’s social work service users and carers’ group. Care was taken to safeguard service users’ well-being, as well as developing an effective learning opportunity. Drawing on evaluations by students and feedback from service users, this paper discusses the process of planning and delivering the workshops, as well as perceived outcomes for both groups. Findings indicate that students valued the opportunity to engage with service users, gaining key learning about their own practice skills. Service users described a boost to self-esteem through contributing to students’ learning. The workshop provides an example of how service user involvement in social work education has evolved from a primary focus on sharing personal testimonies to active participation in student skill development. It underlines the importance of investment in service user involvement to achieve an appropriate context for such projects to develop.