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Normalization fifty years beyond-current trends in the Nordic countries
- Author:
- TØSSEBRO Jan
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 9(2), June 2012, pp.134-146.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The notion and principles of normalisation is a main contribution from the Nordic countries to the development of policies and practices in services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical developments of these services and policies in the countries where the concept emerged and, in particular, the developments that took place after the turn of the 20th century. These years are of special interest because the countries saw important reforms during the 1990s, regarding both deinstitutionalisation and decentralisation. The aim of the paper is to address the developments that took place after the reform energy decreased and political attention had faded. The comparative analysis is based on research reviews in the 5 Nordic countries. The analysis observed a trend toward larger group homes and congregations, inequality across municipalities, marketisation, and new public management, but also an increasing emphasis on consumer rights and the use of the personal assistance scheme in services for people with ID. The article concludes that diverging trends coexist, with improvements going together with significant setbacks. It explores the trends from a political science perspective, noting how they relate to recent shifts in public management and changing drivers of change.
The ward atmosphere scale for psychiatric inpatients with intellectual disability: a pilot study
- Authors:
- BAKKEN Trine Lise, ROSSBERG Jan Ivar, FRIIS Svein
- Journal article citation:
- Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 6(5), 2012, pp.265-272.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The Ward Atmosphere Scale (WAS) is a self-report questionnaire and the most commonly used instrument to measure aspects of treatment environment, which is a factor related to both treatment outcome and patient satisfaction for psychiatric inpatients. This study aimed to examine whether adult psychiatric inpatients with intellectual disability could complete the WAS in a meaningful way. It was conducted with 17 patients and 21 staff members in a specialised psychiatric inpatient unit at the Oslo University Hospital, Norway. This article describes the methodology, analysis and results. It reports that patients with mild intellectual disabilities were able to answer the WAS with some help, but that patients with moderate intellectual disabilities had major difficulties with understanding more than half of the items. The authors conclude that there is a need for further research on how inpatients with intellectual disability and mental illness perceive ward atmosphere, and that a replication study should use a shorter version of the WAS.