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Experiences of leaving prison for people with intellectual disability
- Author:
- ELLEM Kathy
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Learning Disabilities and Offending Behaviour, 3(3), 2012, pp.127-138.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Without adequate supports, people with intellectual disability leaving prison are likely to reoffend. The aim of this paper was to examine the community re-entry experiences of 10 people with an intellectual disability. The findings are drawn from a wider study of prison experiences of people with an intellectual disability in Queensland, Australia. Life stories were developed from in-depth interviews with 10 ex-prisoners (7 male and 3 female) with intellectual disability. Interviews were respectful of the communication styles of participants and involved multiple interview sessions, ranging from 2 to 9 interviews per person. Data were analysed using narrative and thematic analysis. The findings showed that the participants found the process of leaving prison an emotional event, often clouded both with confusion about when release was to occur and uncertainly as to what they could expect on the outside. Their stories highlighted how poorly divergent service models such as corrective services, disability services and mental health services respond to this group, and worked in collaboration to address their complex needs. The findings indicate a vital need for resources for ex-prisoners with intellectual disability for concrete information and coordinated hands-on assistance in negotiating supports in the community.
Transcending the professional–client divide: supporting young people with complex support needs through transitions
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 37(2), 2020, pp.109-122.
- Publisher:
- Springer
Young people with complex support needs frequently experience multiple intersecting forms of disadvantage including experiences of violence, abuse and neglect, housing instability and homelessness, problematic substance use, exclusion from education, and contact with the criminal justice system. Many of these young people have mental health, cognitive disability and/or other health issues that also impact on their lives. These young people need to navigate multiple, diverse, and often difficult transitions between services, adding to the existing chaos in their lives. This article explores the experiences of young people with complex support needs in transition, specifically young people’s viewpoints and experiences of supports they receive from paid professionals. This qualitative study used body mapping research methods and in-depth interviews with 38 young people aged 16 to 26 years in three Australian states. Helpful and trusting paid relationships could serve as an anchor to young people during complex transitions and other highly turbulent life periods. These relationships were contingent on a deep and non-judgmental knowing of the young person, contributed constructive outcomes and stability in young people’s lives, and for some young people, had ‘life-saving’ effects. These findings present opportunities and challenges for policymakers and practitioners to balance the tensions between authentic relationship-based work with young people and risk-averse, economically-driven imperatives in contemporary youth service provisionThe concept of ‘youth transition’ has great currency in social science research and in policy and service provision targeted at youth (Storø, 2017; Strnadova & Cumming, 2016). Transition can broadly be defined as a change in status or role of an individual, which can potentially occur over a multitude of contexts, including moving between or within social structures and across the life course (Harms, 2010; Strnadova & Cumming, 2016). Normative understandings of youth transition have been contested during the last few decades, with recognition that changes such as the transition to adulthood can vary according to cultural and social contexts (Storø, 2017), and are seldom linear or uni-dimensional (te Riele, 2004). Despite these shifts in thinking around transition, much of the research on youth transition is sector or domain-specific, or focuses on singular transitions, such as leaving out-of-home care (Sulimani-Aidan, 2017), the transition to independent living arrangements (Bramsen, Kuiper, Willemse, & Cardol, 2019), or finding employment (Stafford, Marston, Chamorro-Koc, Beatson, & Drennan, 2017). Such studies can explore issues within particular contexts or timeframes in-depth, but fail to examine the interconnectedness and overlaps of transitions (Smith & Dowse, 2019). Adopting a uniform and simplistic framework for understanding change is especially problematic for young people with complex support needs whose experience is likely to transcend service boundaries and singular understandings of transition; and who experience multiple and interlocking disadvantage across the life course (Ellem, Baidawi, Dowse, & Smith, 2019). (Edited publisher abstract)
Services to young people with complex support needs in rural and regional Australia: beyond a metro-centric response
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 99, 2019, pp.97-106.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Young people with complex support needs who live outside metropolitan areas face unique challenges. Issues such as poor educational and employment opportunities, homelessness, racism, problematic substance use, challenging behaviour, disability and mental illness can be magnified and lead to judgment and marginalisation in small communities such as those in rural and regional areas. As a result of poor resourcing of services in these areas, young people may be forced to transition from place to place, service to service as a way of coping with life challenges. This paper presents findings from interviews and focus groups with service providers who support such young people in regional and rural Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. Service providers reported similar challenges to professionals working in urban areas, such as navigating inter-agency and inter-professional work and dealing with funding shortages. However, these issues were amplified by the need to work across broad geographical areas, to recruit and retain skilled workers and to respond to the many structural and resource inadequacies in smaller communities. While services aimed to be responsive to young people, the challenges of providing support in a non-metropolitan context could create a context in which young people either disengaged from services or poor response resulted in systemic escalation to crisis. The implications for policy and practice are explored.
Police contact with young people with cognitive disabilities: perceptions of procedural (In)justice
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, RICHARDS Kelly
- Journal article citation:
- Youth Justice, 18(3), 2018, pp.230-247.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The interactions of police with young people with cognitive disabilities (YPWCD) have seldom been considered in research, even though this group is over-represented in the criminal justice system. This article presents the results of a qualitative study into YPWCD’s experiences with police in Queensland, Australia. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with service providers who work with YPWCD and YPWCD themselves. The procedural justice perspective was used as an analytic framework to provide an insight into YPWCD’s relationships with the police. Findings point to ways in which police can better respond to YPWCD in procedurally just ways, as well as to the role that family and service providers might play in supporting this outcome. (Publisher abstract)
Social work with marginalised people who have a mild or borderline intellectual disability: practicing gentleness and encouraging hope
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 66(1), 2013, pp.56-71.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
People with mild or borderline intellectual disabilities are a group of people who usually do not meet the eligibility criteria for specialist disability services. They may traverse many services, often entering, exiting, and returning to the same service providers with few positive results. This article explores the practice approach of the Meryton Association, a medium-sized non-government agency located in Brisbane, Australia. The Association provides social work support to people with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities, actively assisting this group to build relationships, resources, knowledge, and autonomy in their everyday lives. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with 11 Meryton Association staff and analysis of Meryton Association policy and practice documents, the challenges and opportunities of using this practice approach are documented. The authors propose that specialist services are needed that use a developmental approach, stress the importance of relationship, and the need to practice gentleness and hope in social worker-client interaction.
Choosing the harder road: naming the challenges for families in person-centred planning
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, CHENOWETH Lesley, EDWARDS Ruth
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 23(3), 2019, pp.397-412.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
Person-centred planning (PCP) has underpinned disability service provision in many Western countries for the past 30 years. For many people with an intellectual disability, family members are central to this process and are important allies in facilitating positive change. This article presents findings from an evaluation of a family resourcing and capacity building project in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Accounts from families show the merits of such work, but family efforts can be undermined by apathy and discrimination to disability from extended family, community and service providers. Asking families to be the primary support in PCP initiatives may potentially ignore the impacts of structural and psycho-emotional disablism on all family members. For families to support people with intellectual disability in PCP, there is a need to acknowledge and respond to the material, cultural and personal challenges for all family members in planning processes. (Edited publisher abstract)
Anna's story of life in prison
- Authors:
- BOODLE Anna, ELLEM Kathy, CHENOWETH Lesley
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(2), 2014, pp.117-124.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
People with an intellectual disability in prison can be at increased risk of victimisation, segregation and isolation (Mullen ). Prison systems usually have very few resources to cater to this group's particular needs, and many people may re-enter the community with little or no rehabilitation, poor social connections, poor mental health and little chance in finding employment and living a crime-free life (Baldry et al. ). Gathering the lived expertise of ex-prisoners with an intellectual disability can help others to better understand these experiences. This article is about Anna Boodle's story of imprisonment in Queensland, Australia. Anna participated in a larger PhD study on the life stories of ex-prisoners with an intellectual disability. It is apparent from her story, and the other stories in the study, that there is a need for more humane responses to people with an intellectual disability who offend. Anna's story is a tale of hope to others that a good life is possible after imprisonment. (Publisher abstract)
Effective responses to offenders with intellectual disabilities: generalist and specialist services working together
- Authors:
- ELLEM Kathy, WILSON Jill, CHUI Wing Hong
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 65(3), September 2012, pp.398-412.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The prison system can be particularly traumatising for people with intellectual disabilities, often involving victimisation, segregation, and isolation. Prevalence figures for prisoners with intellectual disabilities ranges from 2.6% to 39.6%. This paper reports on the life stories of 10 people with intellectual disabilities, who had been imprisoned in adult correctional facilities in Queensland. The life stories were gathered from a series of in-depth interviews conducted over a period of 12 months with ex-prisoners (7 men and 3 women) aged from 26-68 years at the time of the first interview. Supplementary data were also gathered from semistructured interviews with 6 practitioners from disability, mental health, and ex-prisoner services. The findings showed that the pathways taken by these 10 people into and out of prison were marked by significant abuse, neglect, and poverty. Significant disparity and disconnection was also displayed between the policies and service approaches, particularly between the disability, mental health, and correctional systems in Queensland. Based on these findings, a framework for practice, which spans both generic and specialist services, is suggested.