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 Fo

rth th

e Lig

ht in

C

om

mun

ity Life

ways to embody their contribution

Capacity Thinking

The art of discovering

what people can contribute to

community life

Contributing

Being Respected

Sharing Ordinary Places

Belonging

Choosing

Dimensions of Self-Determination

Ability & willingness to…

Power over

Power with

Power from within

…make decisions for others & enforce compliance

…listen to & be influenced by others’ perceptions & suggestions & offer perceptions & suggestions in return

…discover & creatively express abilities & concerns which are spiritually meaningful

3 kinds of Power

JUSTICE

Beyond individualism, toward community

• Focus on person

• Freedom from interference

• Abstracted from social circumstances

• Supports our common humanity

(sameness)

• Mutual responsibility to self & others

• Obligations arising from personal ties and connections

• Embedded in particular social circumstances

• Supports our unique individuality

(difference)

RELATIONSHIPS & CARINGINDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Individual Rights

• Get people out of institutions, sheltered workshops, day hab

• Individual rights for those whose rights have been denied

• 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”

Relationships & Caring

• What are we getting people into?

• Responsibility to & for each other

• Search for interdependence

• 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 Service System Community

The Language of…

• us

•citizen/member

•friend

•neighbor

•care

•love

•personal

•capacity (1/2 full)

•interest

•experience

•stories/gossip

•acting/doing

•common

•variety/surprise

•social/collective

•voluntary

•dreams

•consent

•capacity/abundance

•them

•client/consumer

•volunteer

•staff/provider

•service/programs

•treatment/training

•professional

•deficiency (1/2 empty)

•needs/problems

•curriculum/education

•studies

•planning

•reports

•specialization

•standardization

•individual

•paid for

•I_P’s/plans

•compliance/control

•scarcity

ENERGY used to develop & organize structures, agencies, organizations (which tend over time to conformity, uniformity, & discipline

Thrives on:

Principles, laws, procedures, due process, courts, contracts, rules & regulations, I__P’s, reports, plans, deadlines, justifications

POWER OVER

Connections, webs, circles, friends

ENERGY used to find, call forth, support, regenerate, create community (which relies on diversity, pluralism, self governance, and self direction

Thrives on:

Trust, promises, dreams, experiences, personal knowledge, negotiation, time, stories, obligations

POWER WITH

RELATIONSHIPS & CARING Service System

RELATIONSHIPS TURN MY RIGHTS INTO REALITIES

A Variety of Resources

Individual

Relationship

Network

Association

Service

• qualities •abilities •possessions • knowledge • concerns * habits

Individuals people can count on as friends: for fellowship, support & to get things done

Informal groups: support one another and get

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.

Can’t ride on own

Riding Stable

No, insurance

Saturday riders

Only expressed interest

?

Better Listening

Interest in

Horses

reveals

Disabled Riding Group

search

Discovering Capacity

Creating Vision

Sharing Resources

Building Community

Developing Supports

Themes of Person-Centered Work

Discovering Capacity

Creating Vision

Sharing Resources

Building Community

Developing Supports

Contributing

Being Respected

Sharing Ordinary Places

Belonging

Choosing