Citizenship and Participation a personal perspective

1
Citizenship and Participationa personal
perspective

• Fiona Given

2
Our Progress to Date

• De-institutionalisation
• Inclusive education
• Open employment

3
What is citizenship?

• The boundaries of citizenship are determined by
  the individuals who share a relationship with the
  state, and the individual citizen's personal
  relationship with the state.
• Equality amongst all citizens.

4
Social Model of Disability

• Born in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.
• Locates the problem of disability within society
  instead of the individual.
• The medical perspective of disability focuses on
  the individual as the deviant subject, rather
  than on the social structures that label
  difference as deviance and pathology.
• Longman and Umansky (2001)

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What does Society need to Change?

• Buildings need to be made accessible.
• Public transport needs to be made accessible.
• Educational institutions and employers need to
  adopt flexible practices.

6
Are service providers facilitating social
participation or creating another barrier?
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Medical Model of Disability

• Historically, service providers have followed the
  medical model.
• Medicine does have a place in disability.
• The medical model fails people with disabilities
  where it promotes institutionalization and
  exclusion.

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Have Service Providers Been Promoting Social
Participation?

• Social participation has been largely tokenistic
  and people with disabilities have had little to
  gain from it.
• Congregate care must end.
• People need to be supported individually.

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What is not Social Participation?

• A group of people with disabilities sitting in a
  foodcourt for a couple of hours
• They are not engaging with the community
• People need to choose who they socialize with

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How individual are IPPs?

• Goals must fit within the guidelines.
• People attending the same day centre conveniently
  having the goal is not a person centred plan.

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Choice

• Service users have informed choices
• Decisions should be made independent of parents
  and carers.
• Their choices should not be unduly restricted by
  service providers and funding guidelines.

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Employment

• People who can work should be encouraged to do so
  
• It may not always be clear who is and who is not
  able to work
• Employment enhances social participation

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Risk Taking

• Perceived risks associated with people with
  disabilities arriving employment
• Concerns about there being no support available
  if people are no longer able to work
• People with disabilities should not be
  discouraged from taking risks

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Appropriate Employment Support

• People in open employment need to be supported in
  the least obtrusive way possible.
• The relationship must be between the employer and
  the employee, not the employer and the disability
  employment service.

15
Over Specialization of Disability

• The needs of people with disabilities just should
  be blended into the mainstream.
• Specialization does not always deliver the best
  outcomes for people with disabilities or society
  as a whole.

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Challenges in Providing Individualized Support

• Funding
• Occupational Health and Safety
• Disability Service Provider Culture
• Societal Attitudes

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Funding

• Funding should not be consumed by management.
• There needs to be greater transparency in the way
  services manage their funds.
• Individual choice should not be sacrificed for
  financial savings.

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Occupational Health and Safety

• Services have significantly reduced their social
  participation services because they have been
  deemed unsafe for staff.
• Many services have failed to consider the impact
  this has on disability rights.
• Services need to ensure OHS obligations are met
  without sacrificing disability rights.

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Disability Service Provider Culture

• Most disability service providers are centred
  around the staff instead of people with
  disabilities.
• Some staff want to take the easy way out.
• Poor staff practices must end.

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Societal Perceptions

• Easiest challenge to overcome.
• Service providers need to lead the way in giving
  people with disabilities the respect they
  deserve.

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Is it our industry or their support? Robert
Cook (2005)