Mar 5, 2010 - institutional provisions -whether prison, workhouse, or asylum-served as the default welfare system for many people with disabilities.
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Australian Social Work
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Social Work and Disability: An Uneasy Relationship Tim Stainton; Lesley Chenoweth; Christine Bigby Online publication date: 05 March 2010
To cite this Article Stainton, Tim, Chenoweth, Lesley and Bigby, Christine(2010) 'Social Work and Disability: An Uneasy
Relationship', Australian Social Work, 63: 1, 1 — 3 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/03124070903291886 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03124070903291886
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Australian Social Work Vol. 63, No. 1, March 2010, pp. 13
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EDITORIAL Social Work and Disability: An Uneasy Relationship People with disabilities remain one of the most marginalised groups in society with poverty, exclusion, and constant struggle to be seen as equal, valued citizens often characterising their lives. The involvement of social work with people with a disability goes back virtually to the beginnings of the profession. Even further back, disability has featured in social policy for as long as anything recognisable as such has existed. The early Greek city states had disability-related pensions for those returning from the many wars of the period, early poor laws included provision for the ‘‘infirm’’, and provision for the licensing of ‘‘beggars’’ with a range of impairments. Late medieval alms houses were often home to ‘‘idiots and cripples’’ and, in more modern times, institutional provisions -whether prison, workhouse, or asylum-served as the default welfare system for many people with disabilities. As the above suggests, the relationship between people with disabilities and social work and policy has not always been a positive one: a mix of charity at best and incarceration at worst, a trend that has continued to some degree into the present day. Social work itself shows the same gamut of response. As Bigby and Atkinson (2010) show in their contribution to this issue, many social workers were a valued and integral part of the early British system of support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. At the same time, their work was initiated under the eugenics inspired Mental Deficiency Act (1913), which led to widespread incarceration of people with intellectual disabilities. In more recent times, it is easy to understand that people with disabilities and their families have a mix of reactions to social work. These can range from valued supporter, ally, and advocate to paternalistic interventionist, assumed expert, and gate-keeper to flawed service systems. Since the 1970s, people with disabilities have been increasingly demanding their rights as full and equal citizens. Current trends in establishing recognition in law to secure their rights, notably the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and demands for control over how, when, and by whom they are supported, reflect this new paradigm. The calls for increased recognition of decision-making capacity and personalisation of supports through measures such as supported decision making, individualised funding, and person-centered planning have significant impact on both policy and practice to which social work must respond. In the United States, this latter set of trends has become known as ‘‘self-determination’’. For social work, these demands for social justice and self-determination align directly with core social work values and suggest that ethical practice should place social workers squarely in line with the disability movement in their struggle for meaningful equality. However, the challenges of responding to this paradigm are complex, requiring not only changes in practice and policy, but also in new models of understanding, collaboration, and research. It also comes at a time when, as Bigby and Atkinson ISSN 0312-407X (print)/ISSN 1447-0748 (online) # 2010 Australian Association of Social Workers DOI: 10.1080/03124070903291886
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(2010) point out, the role of social work in working with people with disabilities is becoming diminished in many jurisdictions, which may be compounded by the marginalised place of disability in social work curricula. Working with people with disability does not occupy the prominent place in social work course accreditation guidelines taken by child protection and mental health, few social work schools in Australia offer a field of practice subject on disability, and those that do often find it is students’ least preferred option. The strong themes of anxiety of the unknown, fear, and uncertainty that regularly emerge from student reflections on orchestrated encounters with people with intellectual disability as part of a disability field practice taught by one of us, pose a real challenge to the profession. Unless social work education can expose and debate such fears, the profession runs the risk of perpetuating the social distance and stigmatisation that remains between people with disabilities and the community. The papers in this volume provide a range of examples and challenges for social work and policy as well as for social work research. Burgen (2010) demonstrates how women with intellectual disabilities reproductive rights are compromised and how this can be ameliorated. Stevenson (2010) offers us a new approach to research using an Emancipatory Disability Research framework. Fudge-Schormann’s (2010) paper demonstrates how an innovative collaborative research strategy can lead to both the empowerment of participants and the challenging of societal attitudes well beyond the scope of the research project itself. Ellem’s (2010) paper on life story work with exprisoners with intellectual disability illustrates how communication and understanding between professionals and people with intellectual disabilities can be made more respectful and balanced. Dorsett’s (2010) contribution demonstrates how traditional medical views of spinal cord injury denied the validity of people expressed hopes for the future and ultimately the value hope in supporting individuals’ postinjury journey. Kim’s (2010) paper takes on the issue of rights-based practice directly and shows how the new legal instruments can and must be incorporated into practice. Hallahan’s (2010) paper offers social work and policy makers a challenge to go beyond rhetoric and legal instruments in addressing the disadvantage of people with disabilities, reflecting on how ‘‘her practice is legitimised through a commitment to mobilise the cultural knowledge capital built through the habitus of social work policy practice and the symbolic capital of disablement-both are which can be deployed to develop the capacity of colleagues in the disability movement.’’ It also raises questions about how social worker can stand alongside less articulate groups of people with disabilities, such as those with intellectual impairment, to ensure their voices are heard in policy arenas. The challenge for social work and social policy is significant and will require not only new tools and techniques, but also a critical look at what our core values are and how these can best be expressed in practice and policy. The current Australian proposal for a National Disability Insurance Scheme has the potential to transform the disability policy landscape. By creating an entitlement to services, it will help to
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remove the centrality of demand management and rationing from the disability service system, and provide a framework for a more rational life-course approach to support for people with disabilities (www.ndis.org.au). The emancipatory project of people with disabilities is a long and difficult one, and big ideas such as the Insurance Scheme require detailed implementation strategies to which the skills and values of Social Work can be usefully and critically applied in partnership with the disability movement and individuals with disabilities. Supporting emancipatory struggles is not a challenge simply to ‘‘those who work in the field’’ but to all those in the social work profession, for just as oppression can be found in all aspects of the lives of people with disabilities, so too can people with disabilities be found in all aspects of our work and life. The struggle for social justice is not bound by disciplines or fields of expertise, but only by the limits of our common humanity. The quotation from indigenous social worker, Lilla Watson, cited by Stevenson, aptly sums up the ethic which must define social work and policy practice in this area: ‘‘If you come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. If you come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let’s work together’’. We hope the papers in this special issue can provide some insight into the practices, process, and values that will assist social workers and social work academics in their work. We hope too that it will stimulate thought and discussion on these issues of critical importance and assist practitioners and academics in social work to advance the struggle for social justice in this critical area of policy and practice. References Bigby, C., & Atkinson, D. (2010). Written out of history: Invisible women in intellectual disability social work. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 518. Burgen, B. (2010). Women with cognitive impairment and unplanned or unwanted pregnancy: A two-year audit of women contacting the Pregnancy Advisory Service. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 1935. Dorsett, P. (2010). The importance of hope in coping with severe acquired disability. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 86106. Ellern, K.A., & Wilson, J. (2010). Life story work and social work practice: A case study with exprisoners labelled as having an intellectual disability. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 7085. Fudge Schormans, A. (2010). Epilogues and prefaces: Research and social work and people with intellectual disabilities. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 5369. Hallahan, L. (2010). Legitimising social work disability policy practice: pain or praxis? Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 121136. Kim, H.S. (2010). UN disability rights convention and implications for social work practice. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 107120. Stevenson, M. (2010). Flexible and responsive research: Developing rights-based emancipatory disability research methodology in collaboration with young adults with Down syndrome. Australian Social Work, 63 (1), 3652.
TIM STAINTON, LESLEY CHENOWETH (Guest Editors) and CHRISTINE BIGBY (Editor)
