1,721,058 research outputs found
The role of the Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group in shaping an evolving field over time
No full textThe Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group of the Royal Geographical Association-Institute of British Geographers is perhaps the major professional organisation for health and medical geographers working in the UK. This paper reviews the organisational history and operation of the group, and its forerunners, and its role in shaping the development of the geographies of health and wellbeing, since its inaugural symposium in 1972, marking its 50th Anniversary
Spatial perspectives on voluntarism in learning disabilities services in Ireland
No full textVoluntarism has moved to the centre of most western neo-liberal governments’ focus in terms of welfare delivery. At the same time, very little of the social policy literature has identified specific historical, cultural and political contexts of place in shaping the particular form of voluntarism and the scale at which it takes place in a country. In order to address policy-related issues of the voluntary sector, a geographical perspective focusing on these local contexts can be very useful in unpacking how the sector can exist across regional and local scales. This article explores the rise of voluntarism in adult learning disability services in Ireland. Ireland experienced the ‘community turn’ much earlier than most Western states, in that the state advocated a ‘hands-off’ approach in learning disability services from the outset. It uses data from 40 interviews with local health agencies, voluntary organisations and informal carers. It critically examines the complex geographical factors that have contributed to the particular form of voluntarism that has evolved, thus demonstrating that understanding levels of voluntary activity requires attention to local circumstances
Caring for independent lives: geographies of caring for young adults with intellectual disabilities
No full textThis paper engages with the emerging disciplinary clash between ‘care’ and ‘independence’ within disability studies by examining the geography of home care for young adults with intellectual disabilities. The care system as a whole is viewed as central to disablist structures within disability studies (see Thomas, C. (2007). Sociologies of disability and illness: Contested ideas in disability studies and medical sociology. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.). However, despite the theorisation of dependency as being in antipathy to the goals of the disability movement, caregiving at home still continues to dominate community care. The paper attempts to address how family carers are ‘caught-in-the-middle’ between their ‘duty’ to care and at the same time, perpetuating dependency; the reality being that parents have to deal with issues of being overprotective and confronting various social assumptions about disability. It examines the narratives from 25 family caregivers in Ireland who provide personal assistance to young adults with intellectual disabilities
Landscapes of care: comparative perspectives on family caregiving
No full textThe care of people with intellectual disabilities is provided by a variety of sources. Of all these sources, the informal sector - made up of family caregivers - is the largest. This book is concerned with the geographies of carer support and how institutional structures at national, regional and local levels interlock to provide systems of care support. This book raises pertinent questions around the role of government, civil society and service providers in family support. At the national level, state and voluntary services are analysed in the US, England and Ireland by examining how caregivers are ‘targeted’ by the different models of welfare. A post-structuralist perspective is used to examine how carers and care recipients are socially constructed across space and place, and how care discourses have manifested themselves in the provision of care services. Interviews were carried out with statutory and voluntary carer support agencies on how policies are interpreted and implemented on the ground in each country.To explore these issues in more depth, this book examines the case of Ireland in more detail. Ireland has a very history level of support across scale and possesses a unique blend of Catholic conservative ‘family’ policy and ‘neo-liberal’ statutory provision which makes it a particularly interesting case in examining broader debates in welfare and redistributive justice. This case study is informed by the narratives of family caregivers who are affected by such policy. Particular attention is paid to the everyday geographies of care and experiences of support services by the families themselves. The caregivers’ accounts illustrate both the social and spatial difficulties of navigating through a landscape of care characterised by insufficient and conflicting information on services, a lack of shared knowledge between service providers and limited available services, and how these problems shape the caregiving experience within the home
Making space for belonging: critical reflections on the implementation of personalised adult social care under the veil of meaningful inclusion
No full textThis paper critically reflects on the way in which recent adult social care reform has been evolving beneath the alleged policy goal of prioritising the cultivation of meaningful inclusion and ‘belonging’ in the community. With this goal, there has been a focus away from ‘services’ for persons with intellectual disabilities, to supporting natural connections within the community. This paper draws on a grounded theory study of the perspectives of those responsible for overseeing community living arrangements for persons with disabilities, drawing on interviews and focus groups with service providers and relevant government officials. It examines the socio-spatial implications of the gradual shift towards ‘belonging’ as a disability policy goal, as it has evolved in two discrete settings – British Columbia, Canada and Ireland. The findings identify the complexities involved in facilitating active community connection for persons with intellectual disabilities and reveal important cautionary lessons for other jurisdictions where community living policy has arguably been moving away from communal services towards self-managed supports in ‘real’ communities through personal budgets in an effort to remove barriers to participation. The paper thus critically reflects on the rapid pursuit for transformation in personalised adult social care in government policy, arguing that the process of fostering meaningful community inclusion will and should take time
'It's the system working for the system': carers' experiences of community care services in Ireland
No full textThe aim of this article is to examine the experiences of families with young adults with learning disabilities trying to access services. The landscape of disability services for this group is made up of day care, special vocational training and respite places. It aims to identify the extent of an implementation gap between government rhetoric and the degree to which services are characterised as being non-supportive interactions on the ground. Using Ireland as a case study, during a time when the economy isbooming and government rhetoric claims unparalleled developments in allocating resources and extra respite ‘places’, this article identifies the main challenges faced by family carers associated with accessing appropriate services for their disabled adult child, in their attempt to achieve greater independence. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study in which individual semistructured interviews were held with family carers (n = 25) and representatives from national carer organisations (n = 6) in Ireland. These were people caring for an adult (18–30 years) with a learning disability and their experiences were also useful in cross-checking the carerorganisation interviews. The findings show that there is limited flexibility, choice and availability in meeting the preferences of the service-users, and throughout the study, services were characterised as being non-supportive interactions. This is not simply symptomatic of a lack of resources. Despite improved funding, supportive attitudes and flexibility are still crucial in meeting user requirements at the level of delivery; thus highlighting that often the system works for the system, not for the user
Disability, (auto-)mobility and austerity: shrinking horizons and spaces of refuge
No full textIn Britain, many disabled people have access to a car through the Motability Scheme. However, with recent news of thousands of disability claimants losing their cars in cuts, it is worth reflecting on the cultural and symbolic importance of the motor car. The paper considers the car’s ability to expand spatial and experiential horizons and offer a site of sanctuary for disabled people and asks what can be lost in the wake of the recent government reassessment of the scheme
Understanding the complex negotiations in fulfilling the right to independent living for disabled people
No full textThe independent living agenda has become dominated by a rights focus which has helped drive national level shifts in setting norms and changing mind-sets. This paper is concerned with examining how rights are utilised by service providers in the process of facilitating independent living. Drawing on an empirical case-study of providers in Ireland, the paper identifies the strategies being used to put rights into practice. The findings show that in the process of creating a well-managed support arrangement for each individual, providers often take a delicate approach to using rights, and sometimes dilute their guiding principles when engaging in on-going complex negotiations between individuals, families, staff and volunteers. The disabled people's movement can contribute to the shared learning required in enabling managers handle this process better, rather than solely rely on an abstract call for rights
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