Social Work and Disability

Peter Simcock

Staffordshire University

Dr. Rhoda Castle

University of Derby

Why ‘Social Work & Disability’?

• The need for more literature linking social work & Disability Studies

• Implications for practice

Why ‘Social Work & Disability’?

• Students’ understanding

of models of disability

• Limitations of the care

management role

Personal motivations: Rhoda

• Inspiring practice

• Challenging the ‘us and them’ approach

• Welfare reform

• Reclaiming the social work role

Personal Motivations: Peter

• Practice Experience

• Sensory Impairment Interest

• Legislative Changes

Focus on physical & sensory impairment

• Should people be defined in terms of type of impairment?

• Variation in the barriers experienced

• Culture and the response of others

Social Work and Disability: Key Themes

Critique of social work by disabled people

justified; social workers must critically reflect on

this

Social work can and does promote disabled

people’s rights and securing of positive

outcomes

Social workers need to broaden remit beyond individual casework in

this setting

Focus on human rights

Full understanding of the barriers that disable

people with impairments

Partnership working with disabled people

and their organisations, as equal allies

PART ONE

Perspectives: Understanding

Disability

• Lived Experience of Impairment, Disability and Social Work

• Theories and Models of Disability

• Disability from a Lifecourse Perspective

• The Legal and Policy Perspective

PART TWO

Diversity, Inequality and Disability

• Inequality, Oppression and Disability

• Disability and Diversity

PART THREE

Disability and Social

Work Practice

• Communication and Engagement

• Working with Disabled Children

• Working with Disabled Adults

• Safeguarding, Social Work and Disability

• Collaborative Practice

I value social workers who recognise that my need for their involvement

is not always related to my physical impairments. And I value social workers who protect and promote my rights – not just my rights as a user of social work services, but

my fundamental human rights.

Helen Burrell

Book Available From:

• Polity Press • Amazon • University bookstores

• Sample copies &

order forms (20% discount) here today

Acknowledgements and ‘Thank you’

Polity Press: Jonathan Skerrett

Reviewers and Endorsers

Colleagues: Helen Burrell, Rachel

Good, Jess Wagner, Ian Lloyd

Colleagues from Practice: Sharon

Gayle & John Elson

Service users: in practice and in HEIs

Social work practitioners and

social work students

Family and Friends

Thank You for Listening

Peter Simcock

p.simcock@staffs.ac.uk

Dr. Rhoda Castle

r.castle@derby.ac.uk