Preface.- Introduction: Setting the Scene.- Social Work and Disability: Old and New Directions.- Impairment, Disability and Research.- Relationships and Families.- Independent Living and Personal Assistance.- Independent Living: The Wider Social Policy and Legal Context.- Independent Living: Vulnerability and Safeguarding.- Conclusion - Future Directions.

The politics of silence is central to disability experience and the field of disability studies. In this analytical autoethnography, I write about my silences as a visually impaired woman. I explore and make sense of personal life stories through a theoretical perspective. The analysis of these personal experiences lead me to argue that disability-related silences are mostly created through the confluence of inaccessible physical and social environments and the psychological internalisation of these worlds. I also discuss the ways in which I am currently regaining my voice. Further research on resistance by disabled persons is recommended.

background

Social Work with Disabled People

Driving in unheard silence: Disability and the politics of shutting up:

Psychiatric diagnoses are ubiquitous, but historically have been seen as problematic, even contested, categories. Calls for new models of mental distress have originated from psychiatry, clinical psychology, and the service user movement. However these proposals are limited in their scope. Taking a social constructionist critical realist epistemological approach, the thesis framed psychiatric diagnoses as active categories; constructed to meet particular needs and functions. The central research question of the thesis was to explore, from multiple perspectives, the functions of psychiatric diagnosis. Theoretical questions addressed the conceptual underpinnings of diagnostic categories, how they are used in practice, and their implications. Three methodologies were used. A textual examination of chapters of the DSM-5 analysed the heterogeneity across diagnostic criteria and explored diagnostic classification as a protocol for practice. Semi-structured interviews with clinicians (GPs, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists) and individuals who had received psychiatric diagnoses were used to examine the practices of diagnosis within and beyond the clinic. Finally, Freedom of Information Act requests made to NHS mental health trusts in the north of England were used to explore the uses of diagnosis in service entry and eligibility criteria. The findings revealed that psychiatric diagnoses performed multiple clinical, social, and administrative functions in multiple contexts, and acted as a proxy for various factors, with tensions arising across these functions. These functions invoked different underpinning conceptualisations, which were inconsistent across contexts. Diagnostic practices were found to be often at odds with the use prescribed by diagnostic manuals. Although clinicians used diagnosis as a flexible tool, categories were reified beyond the clinic with important implications for those diagnosed. The thesis structure reflects the tensions that arose as a result of these multiple functions, through a process of diagnostic categories travelling from the text of the classification itself, to clinicians, services, and beyond the clinic to the individuals who received them. These multiple uses and changing conceptualisations meant that the utility of one function could result in harmful costs elsewhere. At the intersection of these functions were the people diagnosed, for whom diagnostic categories had potentially damaging consequences. Diagnosis-focused clinicians and administrative structures such as benefits payments placed limitations on the extent to which individuals could publicly reject their diagnosis should they choose to. In contrast with previous proposals focused on replacing specific aspects of psychiatric diagnosis (such as taxonomy or individual assessment), a broader programme of system reform is advocated. Recommendations include the use of psychosocial and descriptive codes of the International Classification of Diseases and competency-based services.

The functions of psychiatric diagnosis

Emancipating disabling studies

This methods review sets out knowledge about current uses and applications of large datasets for research in adult social care practice. Built on a wide-ranging search of the literature, this review discusses examples of the use of different large datasets such as the General Social Care Council, the Census, the Labour Force Survey, governmental and hospital records, as well as others in health and social care research. It focuses on the methods adopted to extract and use data from different large datasets to enable quantitative and statistical examination of the research questions considered. It discusses the challenges associated with using large data records, which in some cases are not originally designed for specific quantitative data analysis or to answer a pre-defined research question, and illustrates various approaches adopted by researchers to extract, validate, refine and interpret results based on such data. The review discusses the strengths and limitations of a number of large datasets currently used in research on social care in England, with examples from adult safeguarding and other areas relevant to adult social care practice. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESEARCH ON ADULT SOCIAL CARE PRACTICE This review recommends that social care researchers: ! Accredit the potential value of existing datasets that are relevant to social care practices. ! Invest in identifying available datasets that are relevant to their research questions to produce more robust research findings. This may include combining or benefiting from different datasets. ! Recognise the value of adopting appropriate statistical methodologies when analysing existing large datasets within a multi-methods research design. ! Address the challenges associated with utilising existing datasets when examining new research questions.

School for Social Care Research

In 1999 we began research, funded by the ‘Thomas Pocklington Trust’, to explore the opinions of visually impaired people on visual impairment research We found people wanted greater inclusion of visually impaired people in such research and participatory, empowering and emancipatory research was a priority for them We also found, through reviewing the academic literature, that there was a dearth of such work in the field In this article we revisit the topic to review research that has or has not been conducted since our first study to see if there has been a change in the use of emancipatory methods in the field We have contextualized our review in a discussion on the field of disability studies and the international social policy context of disability issues We found a growth of interest and activity in participatory, emancipatory and empowering research in the field of disability research more generally There was also some indication that the social model of disability has had an impact on national and international social policy However, our review found that there continues to be a dearth of emancipatory research in relation to visual impairment The one study we did locate highlighted how participatory methods are not, in our view, necessarily consistent with the epistemological underpinnings of emancipatory methods We believe the call from within disability studies for the greater use of emancipatory research methods has not been sufficiently realized in the field of visual impairment and more needs to be done to ground politically informed epistemological understandings in visual impairment research if more progress is to be made

Social Work with Disabled People

Citations

Driving in unheard silence: Disability and the politics of shutting up:

The functions of psychiatric diagnosis

Emancipating disabling studies

School for Social Care Research

The emancipation of visually impaired people in social science research practice

Related Papers (5)

The Politics of Disablement

Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice

Disability Rights and Wrongs

The social model of disability: An outdated ideology?

Female Forms: Experiencing and Understanding Disability