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Written out of history: invisible women in intellectual disability social work
- Authors:
- BIGBY Christine, ATKINSON Dorothy
- Journal article citation:
- Australian Social Work, 63(1), March 2010, pp.4-17.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The area of intellectual disability is an important field of social work practice in both Britain and Australia. Yet this is also a multidisciplinary field in which the role of social workers, particularly women, in contributing to the lives of people with intellectual disability and their families has largely gone unnoticed. Focusing on England and Victoria, Australia in particular, this paper uses oral history interviews with 3 long-standing social workers, and documentary evidence including government reports and newspaper coverage, to explore the similarity in the roles of social workers in intellectual disability. It covers the period between the beginning of social work in this field, which in the case of England was 1929 and in Victoria 1952, until the end of the 1990s. Work with families is identified as being central in both countries, as well as mediating relationship between institutions and services, families, and the community, and service development and advocacy. The paper concludes by asking questions about the disappearance of identified social work positions in this field and how their previous roles are fulfilled.
A five-country comparative review of accommodation support policies for older people with intellectual disability
- Author:
- BIGBY Christine
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 7(1), March 2010, pp.3-15.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Most developed countries have social policies which consider people with intellectual disability as citizens with equal rights, which suggest they should share similar goals to a healthy and active older person in the general community, and an expectation of the necessary supports to achieve this. This article, comparing the development and implementation of accommodation support programmes for people aging with intellectual disabilities in five modern welfare states (Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the US), describes the limited development of policies in this area and suggests possible reasons why this is the case. A review of the literature on aging policies for people with intellectual disability was conducted, which suggested that despite consistent identification of similar broad policy issues and overarching goals, little progress has been made in the development of more specific policies or implementation strategies to address issues associated with accommodation support as people age. The author concludes that policy debates which have conceptualised the problem as ageing in place and the shared responsibility of the care and disability sectors may have detracted from either sector leading the development of formulating, implementing, and resourcing a strong policy framework.