Life History or 'Case' History: the objectification of people with learning difficulties through the tyranny of professional discourses

Case histories of people with learning difficulties tend to privilege information that is useful to professionals, such as IQ and medical diagnosis. Such information allows professionals to slot people with learning difficulties into categories which inform 'treatment' and aid prognosis. Case records, as they are currently constructed, appear to further silence an already oppressed group of people, and to objectify, pathologise and label them. The subjects of such case records do not appear to be treated as stakeholders in the case recording process: their voices are not represented in such writings. Case records do not appear to contain information about the lived experience of people with learning difficulties. Ignorance of the unique histories of people with learning difficulties is dehumanising and allows professionals to psychologically distance themselves. Once humanity has disappeared, it is possible to treat people as 'objects' that can be controlled through 'respected' professional theories and their discursive practices.     

The centrality of work

The content of the article was inspired by the author's work as Executive Director of the Occupational Health and Safety Branch within the Saskatchewan Department of Labour, from 1973 to 1982. During that period he worked closely with the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees and was responsible for bringing in legislation and regulations that went beyond the 'technical' matters regarding work-place health and safety.     

Fifty Years Ago: the Curtis and Clyde Reports

Fifty years ago the Curtis and Clyde reports set out the blueprints for a new children's service. They contained an emphasis on the personal needs of deprived children, an insistence on fostering as the method of care best suited for them and the recommendation that a completely new local authority department was required. The following Children Act (1948) established the Children's Departments which soon became synonymous with enlightened child care. The origin of the reports is often attributed to the campaigns of Lady Allen in 1944 and the scandal of the death of a foster child in 1945. But the real origins stemmed from events precipitated by the Second World War, while the contents of the reports can be discerned in even earlier years.     

The Role of Perceived Loneliness and Isolation in the Relapse from Recovery in Patients with Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa

Rates of relapse in the treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are problematic as is reflected in the literature. While there are some studies that examine the contributing factors associated with relapse, there is much that remains unclear. This paper explores the role of perceived isolation and loneliness as contributing factors in the relapse of patients in the course of treatment for these disorders. A review of the literature on relapse, clinical case material, treatment outcomes, and implications for future treatment and study are discussed.     

Working with a radical agenda: the Musasa project,Zimbabwe

In 1988, a nongovernmental organization, the Musasa Project, was created to combat domestic violence against women in Zimbabwe where such violence is not only widespread, it is also socially acceptable. Therefore, Musasa not only set up shelters and provided counseling to victims of domestic violence, it also attempted to transform society through an extensive public education campaign. This campaign started with the police force through an identification of the problems police officers had experienced in their dealings with domestic violence. Discussions of these problems led to changes in the ways in which victims are interviewed. The police officers also reported difficulties interacting with the legal system which were addressed through a series of workshops facilitated by Musasa for members of the police force and of the legal system. Whereas these actions were both radical and innovative, the project's public statements were cautious during the first 3 years. Since the time of a planned change in leadership (when the original founders withdrew according to schedule), the project has grown increasingly radical and now addresses gender issues through a series of gender workshops designed to expose the workings of the patriarchy and the problems associated with lobola (the bride price).     

A folded model for compositional data analysis

A folded type model is developed for analysing compositional data. The proposed model involves an extension of the α‐transformation for compositional data and provides a new and flexible class of distributions for modelling data defined on the simplex sample space. Despite its rather seemingly complex structure, employment of the EM algorithm guarantees efficient parameter estimation. The model is validated through simulation studies and examples which illustrate that the proposed model performs better in terms of capturing the data structure, when compared to the popular logistic normal distribution, and can be advantageous over a similar model without folding.     

Non-parametric MANOVA approaches for non-normal multivariate outcomes with missing values

Between-group comparisons often entail many correlated response variables. The multivariate linear model, with its assumption of multivariate normality, is the accepted standard tool for these tests. When this assumption is violated, the non-parametric multivariate Kruskal–Wallis (MKW) test is frequently used. However, this test requires complete cases with no missing values in response variables. Deletion of cases with missing values likely leads to inefficient statistical inference. Here we extend the MKW test to retain information from partially observed cases. Results of simulated studies and analysis of real data show that the proposed method provides adequate coverage and superior power to complete case analyses.