The number of disability related support services controlled and run by disabled people themselves has increased significantly in the UK and internationally over the past forty years. As a result, ...greater user involvement in service provision and delivery is a key priority for many western Governments. This book provides the first comprehensive review and analysis of these developments in the UK.
Drawing on evidence from a range of sources, including material from the first national study of user-controlled services, this book provides a critical evaluation of the development and organisation of user-controlled services in the UK and identifies the principal forces - economic, political and cultural - that influence and inhibit their further development. It summarises and discusses the policy implications for the future development of services and includes an up-to-date and comprehensive literature and research review.
"Independent futures" is essential reading for academics and students on a range of courses including: health and social care; social work; allied health professions, such as nursing, occupational therapy and speech therapy; social policy; sociology; and psychology. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers who need a reliable overview of current policy and critical analysis of key issues affecting future policy and practice.
Aboriginal Peoples Geoffrey Mercer
Aboriginal People and Other Canadians,
12/2001
Book Chapter
Throughout the twentieth century, the health status of the Aboriginal population, whether assessed by mortality or morbidity rates or other indicators of general social malaise, has been ...significantly worse than for the rest of Canadians. Aboriginal peoples have been denied control of their own communities and lives, and have felt helpless in the midst of wide-ranging social and political injustices. Not until the 1970s did the growth of political protest impress governments with the need for a change in Aboriginal-state relations in order to address these deepseated inequalities, including the significant “health divide.” Indeed, a central objective of these Aboriginal
This chapter, first, foregrounds users' experiences using mainstream, community-based support services. A contrast is drawn with disabled people's experiences of user-led services. The discussion ...concentrates on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of provision. Second, consideration is given to the impact of current economic and policy contexts on the promotion of 'independent living' Third, there is a more detailed examination of the key aspects about user-led services that users believe set them apart from mainstream statutory and voluntary services. These range over the process of assessment of support needs through the quality and range of services to central claims by organizations of disabled people that user-controlled agencies provide greater choice and control to individual disabled service users. The final section considers the responses of research participants to questioning about the drawbacks and shortcomings in their experience of user-led services, and whether there was a discrepancy between the aims and objectives of user-controlled organizations and actual practice, and if so, what might be the explanation.
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