Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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Putting advocacy on the map
- Author:
- -
- Journal article citation:
- Viewpoint, March 2005, p.24.
- Publisher:
- Mencap/Gateway
Reports on 'The Map Squad', a member-led advocacy project in Tower Hamlets which is helping people set up new projects. The group is represented on the local Learning Disability Partnership Board, has written a plan on modernising day services and is currently setting up a resources library.
Exploring experiences of advocacy by people with learning disabilities: testimonies of resistance
- Editors:
- MITCHELL Duncan, et al, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 224p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This text charts the course through which people with learning disabilities have become increasingly able to direct their own lives as fully active members of their communities. Accounts from the UK, Australia, Canada and Iceland consider both the individual pioneers of self advocacy and local and national groups that have been set up to work actively towards improved services for people with learning disabilities. The book also examines what self-advocacy means for these people and provides an overview of how opportunities and services have changed for them over the decades.
Social identity and people with learning difficulties: implications for self-advocacy groups
- Authors:
- FINLAY Michael, LYONS Evanthia
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 13(1), February 1998, pp.37-51.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Investigates the significance of the label 'learning difficulties' to self-descriptions and self-evaluations in group of people with learning difficulties. The lack of salience of the 'learning disabled' identity to the participants is discussed with respect to implications for self-advocacy groups and collective action.
A collaborative group method of inclusive research
- Authors:
- BIGBY Christine, FRAWLEY Patsie, RAMCHARAN Paul
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(1), 2013, pp.54-56.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This study proposes one method of inclusive research with people with learning disabilities, the ‘collaborative group' approach. It examines the processes used to conduct a study involving academics and self-advocates, presenting findings derived from an inductive analysis of field note data, interview and meeting transcripts. Five components are identified: shared and distinct purposes of participants equally valued, shared involvement and distinct contributions equally valued, flexible, adapted research methods, working as a group with trusting relationships and dispersed power, and scaffolding for inclusion. This collaborative group method potentially results in better research than either academics or self-advocates could achieve alone and has multiple knowledge outcomes with differing accessibility and complexity. (Edited publisher abstract)
Being a member of a self-advocacy group: experiences of intellectually disabled people
- Authors:
- GILMARTIN Ann, SLEVIN Eamonn
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38(3), September 2010, pp.152-159.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of belonging to a self-advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities. The participants were 13 persons with intellectual disabilities who had attended three self-advocacy day centre based groups in a city in the west of Ireland for a minimum of six months. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews in which the participant talked about how it felt to be a member of a self-advocacy group. The descriptions were arranged into two main categories: ‘functioning as a group’; and ‘impact of group membership on personal lives’. The results showed that the participants felt their lives had improved and they were more fulfilled as a result of being part of their self-advocacy group. Empowerment occurred for the participants' both at an individual and collective basis, and a greater sense of self-determination and autonomy was evident in their lives by the opportunities to make choices. The article concludes that opportunities should be provided for adults with an intellectual disability who are not attending day services to join self-advocacy groups in a community setting as there were clear benefits identified in this study from group membership. A recognition that service providers need to take on board the value that can result from self-advocacy groups was also apparent.
A new movement in an old bureaucracy: the development of self-advocacy in the Czech Republic
- Author:
- SISKA Jan
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34(3), September 2006, pp.139-145.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The author describes how self-advocacy has grown in the Czech Republic, and provides an overview of its relatively short history within the broader context of political and administrative change toward community-based services, and the slow process of de-institutionalisation. The development of the country's first self-advocacy group is also described. The author highlights the importance of the systematic support for self-advocacy groups in the Czech Republic.
Changing selves: a grounded theory account of belonging to a self-advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- BART Suzie, HARDY Gilian, BUCHAN Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 17(1), June 2004, pp.91-100.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The aim was to explore the experience of belonging to a self-advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities, and how membership of such a group impacts on individual members. Eight people with intellectual disabilities, who belonged to a self-advocacy group for at least 6 months, were interviewed about their experiences of membership. A grounded theory approach was used to generate and analyse the interview data. A model of the impact of belonging to a self-advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities on individual members' self-concept is developed. The model proposes that participants' self-concept changes as a result of group membership and that this process of change involves six key categories: joining the group; learning about and doing self-advocacy; becoming aware of group aims and identity; experiencing a positive social environment; identifying positive change in self-concept and seeing the future of self and group as interlinked. Membership of a self-advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities changes the self-concept of participants. The processes surrounding these changes have important implications for self-advocacy groups both, in recruitment and in supporting group members.
Building bridges? The role of research support in self-advocacy
- Authors:
- CHAPMAN Rohhss, McNULTY Niall
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 32(2), June 2004, pp.77-85.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The Carlisle Research Group 'Co-op' is a group which aim to carry out 'person-led' research in a way that changes ideas and makes life better for people with learning disabilities. Six of the eight members in the group are labelled as having a learning difficulty, the two other people act in a role of involved support. In this article the members of the group with a support role explain what they do, highlight the changes occurring within the group, and to open up a debate as to the research support role in the self-advocacy movement. The article also includes a case study on the process of writing an article for a journal article.
Speaking for themselves
- Author:
- PERRY Joanna
- Journal article citation:
- Care Plan, 8(1), September 2001, pp.10-14.
- Publisher:
- Positive Publications/ Anglia Polytechnic University, Faculty of Health and Social Work
The VIA Advocacy Project is funded by the Department of Health to distribute money set aside for the development of self-advocacy groups in the Valuing People White Paper. The author explains the aims of the new project, the history of self-advocacy, and the need for further development.
Navigating paradox: reflections on facilitating self-advocacy for people with learning difficulties
- Author:
- ILES I. K.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Learning Disabilities for Nursing Health and Social Care, 3(3), 1999, pp.163-167.
It is quite usual for people with learning difficulties in self-advocacy groups to be supported by non-disabled staff of one sort or another. There is a wide range of literature detailing issues relevant to the practice of supporting such groups that can be drawn upon by staff to inform their practice. This article suggests that there needs to be a more critical engagement with the experimental of working in this field and that group facilitators need to be critically-reflecting on their practice in this area as well as reading about it. Argues that through the dialectic accounts generated as a result of engaging with questions of the kind 'How do I improve this process of self-advocacy here?' that workers in this field are creating living theories of practice.