Discussion 11
Select one question from questions 1 through 4.
What are some of the major issues in defining persons with developmental disabilities? How are these issues influenced by the social construct of disability in our society?
What are the major misconceptions that practitioners need to address in working with persons with intellectual disabilities?
Why are self-advocacy organizations so important and how will they affect your future work with persons with disabilities?
What are some of the specific characteristics of ASD, and how would knowledge of these characteristics influence interventions strategies?
Also, answer question 5 regarding the role of human service professionals in facilitating empowerment with this population.
5. How can social service agencies and practitioners facilitate the empowerment and independence of persons with developmental disabilities?
Discussion 12
Post your response to any one of the discussion questions listed below.
What are some of the specific types of discrimination experienced by persons with mental health disabilities and their family members?
Describe the impact of social stigma on persons with mental health disabilities.
How has the meaning of mental health disabilities evolved over the past few centuries? In the past twenty to thirty years?
How did eugenics affect the lives and treatment of people with mental health disabilities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
Traditionally, individual treatment and therapy have been used as w ay to reduce the social costs of mental health disabilities. What societal and social changes would be effective in improving the lives of people with mental health disabilities and reducing the social burdens associated with mental health disabilities?
What are the strengths and limitations of professional approaches to mental health disabilities? What are the strengths and limitations of the social model and independent living approach to mental health disability? What are effective ways that the two approaches can be utilized in partnership?
Review professional books and/or articles and the adjectives used to describe mental health disabilities and the lives of people with mental health disabilities? How do these adjectives portray life with a mental health disability? How would alternative adjectives portray life with a mental health disability? How would alternative adjectives convey different messages?
A significant controversy involving people with mental health disabilities involves the use of involuntary treatment. Describe conditions under which involuntary interventions are justified, and not justified. Describe systemic changes that could reduce the need for involuntary treatment.
Also, give an example from the narrative by Donna Orrin (or someone you know who is affected by mental illness) of the role of human service providers in her experience with mental illness.