Transcript Intellectual Disability: Definition, Classification

SW 644: Issues in Developmental Disabilities
Best Practice: Moving Beyond the Service System and
Expanding Normalization in and with Community
Lecture Presenter:
Connie Lyle O’Brien, MSW
Call Forth the Light in Community
Life
Capacity Thinking
The art of discovering
what people can
contribute to community
life
ways to embody
their contribution
Belonging
Choosing
Contributing
Being
Respected
Sharing Ordinary
Places
Dimensions of Self-Determination
3 kinds of Power
Ability & willingness to…
Power over
…make decisions for others & enforce
compliance
Power with
…listen to & be influenced by others’
perceptions & suggestions & offer
perceptions & suggestions in return
Power from within
…discover & creatively express abilities &
concerns which are spiritually meaningful
JUSTICE
Beyond individualism, toward community
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
• Focus on person
• Freedom from interference
• Abstracted from social
circumstances
• Supports our
common humanity
(sameness)
RELATIONSHIPS & CARING
• Mutual responsibility to self &
others
• Obligations arising from
personal ties and connections
• Embedded in particular social
circumstances
• Supports our unique
individuality
(difference)
Individual Rights
Relationships & Caring
• Get people out of institutions,
sheltered workshops, day hab
• What are we getting people into?
• Individual rights for those whose
rights have been denied
• Search for interdependence
• Demand for autonomy & self
determination
• Seeing the necessity of asking
people, “What do you want?”
• Result: Community services,
mostly agency controlled &
operated “home-like” placements
or “job placements”
• Responsibility to & for each other
• Work toward shared visions of
desirable futures held together by
mutual, personal knowledge, love,
commitment, celebration &
grieving.
• Aiming for support to live in my
own home & have a job suited to
my gifts where I can make a
contribution & earn a decent
wage.
The Language of…
The Service System
•them
•client/consumer
•volunteer
•staff/provider
•service/programs
•treatment/training
•professional
•deficiency (1/2 empty)
•needs/problems
•curriculum/education
•studies
Community
• us
•planning
•reports
•specialization
•standardization
•individual
•paid for
•I_P’s/plans
•compliance/control
•scarcity
•citizen/member
•friend
•acting/doing
•neighbor
•common
•care
•variety/surprise
•love
•social/collective
•personal
•voluntary
•capacity (1/2 full) •dreams
•interest
•consent
•experience
•stories/gossip
•capacity/abundance
Service System
RELATIONSHIPS & CARING
Connections, webs, circles, friends
ENERGY used to develop &
organize structures, agencies,
organizations (which tend over time
to conformity, uniformity, &
discipline
ENERGY used to find, call forth,
support, regenerate, create
community (which relies on
diversity, pluralism, self
governance, and self direction
Thrives on:
Thrives on:
Principles, laws, procedures, due
process, courts, contracts, rules &
regulations, I__P’s, reports, plans,
deadlines, justifications
Trust, promises, dreams,
experiences, personal knowledge,
negotiation, time, stories,
obligations
POWER OVER
POWER WITH
RELATIONSHIPS TURN MY
RIGHTS INTO REALITIES
A Variety of Resources
Individual
• qualities •abilities •possessions
knowledge • concerns * habits
•
Individuals people can count on as friends:
for fellowship, support & to get things done
Relationship
Informal groups: support one another and get
Network
Association
things done together
Identified group that confers membership,
defines roles, takes positions, gets things
done
Bureaucratic structure to get things done for
eligible people: formalized relationship.
Service
Riding
Stable
?
No, insurance
Only expressed
interest
Better
Listening
reveals
Interest
in
Horses
search
Saturday
riders
Disabled
Riding
Group
Can’t ride on own
Developing
Supports
Building
Community
Discovering
Capacity
Creating
Vision
Sharing
Resources
Themes of Person-Centered Work
Belonging
Developing
Supports
Discovering
Capacity
Choosing
Being
Respected
Building
Community
Creating
Vision
Sharing Ordinary
Places
Contributing
Sharing
Resources