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A critical comparison of welfare states and their relevance to people with an intellectual disability
- Authors:
- de CHENU Linda, DAEHLEN Dag, TAH Jude
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 20(4), 2016, pp.397-415.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
This article compares the welfare services for adults with an intellectual disability in three European countries: England, Norway and Sweden. The purpose of the comparison is to develop an understanding of the welfare state and institutional contexts of the country-specific policies and to develop a critical analysis through a comparative method based on selected secondary literature. Typological frameworks of European welfare states are applied as analytic frameworks to enable comparison between the countries. It is argued that there are international policy developments but these are shaped at a national level by different types of welfare states and histories. Through a comparison of similarities and differences, the article suggests that international policy ideas that impact on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities are mediated by different types of welfare states and institutions.
Moving on: transitions out of care for young people with learning disabilities in England and Sweden
- Authors:
- ROBERTS Helen, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46(1), 2018, pp.54-63.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Background: Young people with learning disabilities are frequently underrepresented in research accounts. This study describes the experiences of young people moving from the care system. Methods: The authors scoped the English and Swedish literature for first-hand accounts and interviewed four young people with learning disabilities leaving the English care system. Findings: “Grey” and campaigning literature are more likely than academic studies to include the voices of service users, but even then, the voices tend to be those of professional or family carers. Both the literature and interviews demonstrate young peoples’ awareness and understanding of the social as well as financial benefits of work. Good foster care could be precarious, and young people in unhappy placements lacked direction. Exploitation around a young person's housing and finances could be problems. There was evidence of “threshold” difficulties in accessing services. Conclusions: Despite an NHS commitment to listening to users in the UK, and similar aspirations in Sweden, our search of the literature identified few studies reporting care leavers' with learning disabilities own words. Our data add to the voices of a group frequently silent or silenced. We found evidence of resilience and hope as well as difficulties and frustrations. The accounts in the literature and our interviews provide data on what it can be like to try to operate “the system.” The people we spoke with and those whose accounts we found in the literature were thoughtful and engaging. They provide an important source of knowledge for policy and practice. (Edited publisher abstract)