Rethinking Partnerships Between Parents and Professionals

SUMMARY: The declaration by the United Nations of 1994 as the International Year of the Family provides a good opportunity to make a fresh start in re-examining policy and practice from first principles. The time seems ripe for a wholesale reappraisal of relationships between families and professionals in the field of intellectual (learning) disability. Members of an International Year of the Family Task Force established by the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (Inclusion International) collected around 100 family stories from families around the world who had a relative with an intellectual disability. These family stories indicated that families are not satisfied with the information they are given, the attitudes of professionals, service planners and providers or with the nature and quality of support which they are receiving. Families are asserting their rights as citizens and consumers and they want to see changes. This paper summarises some directions for change.