Leanne Dowse

Enabling Citizenship: Gender, disability and citizenship in Australia

This paper queries the absence of disabled voices in contemporary citizenship literature. It argues that the language and imagery of the citizen is imbued with hegemonic normalcy and as such excludes disability. Feminist perspectives, such as those which argue for a form of maternal citizenship, largely fail to acknowledge disability experiences. Exclusionary practices are charted and links are made between gender, race and disability in this process. A citizenship which acknowledges disability is fundamental to re-imaging local, national and international collectivities.

‘Some people are never going to be able to do that’. Challenges for people with intellectual disability in the 21st century

This article surveys contemporary macro social, economic and political issues and considers how they define the context of life for people with intellectual disability in the early 21st century. It suggests that processes associated with globalisation intensify the agenda of neo‐liberalism to fundamentally determine their everyday social arrangements and experiences, at least in western democracies such as the USA, the UK and Australia. Risk has now emerged as an overarching principle informing social responses to intellectual disability, while marketisation and privatisation have given rise to a complex dynamic whereby demands for individualism have become interconnected with states of dependency. Emerging technologies of citizenship have seen paradoxical notions of choice, consent, needs and interests applied to people with intellectual disability. These new forms of governance pose personal challenges at an individual level and political challenges to the collective of self‐advocacy in its project for change in a globalising world.

Integrating critical disability studies into social work education and practice: An Australian perspective

This article surveys the potential for critical disability studies to enhance the teaching of social work education and practice. For disabled people social work can be a contradictory experience. Social workers are part of a ‘disabling’ as well as an ‘enabling’ profession and are increasingly coming under the critical gaze of disabled scholars and activists within the disability movement. As a result of a long association with medicalised paradigms of intervention, social work has either failed to take on board new ways of examining the disability experience or simply left disability as a marginal practice concern. Emancipatory paradigms, which place the views of disabled people as central to the change process, are replacing traditional ways of thinking. In this article, teaching disability is explored within the Australian context where market ideologies are heavily influencing the work of social work and other human service professionals. It reviews teaching an elective subject in disability to undergraduate social work students and concludes with implications for change in the social work curriculum, which should have direct impact on the practice of future social workers.

In search of a level playing field – the constraints and benefits of sport participation for people with intellectual disability

This paper presents the results of a study seeking to examine the experiences of people with intellectual disability in a sporting context. The research design employed an online, interviewer-completed questionnaire in both a standard and an easy English version designed for administration by a third party for those requiring assistance to respond. Questions sought both quantitative responses about levels of participation and qualitative responses about constraints experienced and benefits received from participation. The results of the study show high levels of participation reported by people who are independent or have lower to moderate support needs, whereas people with high to very high support needs had substantially lower levels of participation. Constraints are examined for both those who participate in sport and those who do not. For those who do participate, the benefits were identified as overwhelmingly social in nature, including belonging, companionship and achievement.

Disabling criminology: conceptualising the intersections of critical disability studies and critical criminology for people with mental health and cognitive disabilities in the criminal justice system

Increasing numbers of people with mental health disorders and cognitive disabilities (MHD&CD) are becoming caught in a cycle of social exclusion and criminalisation, resulting in their incarceration and re-incarceration in the criminal justice system. Our capacity to conceptualise and protect the human rights of such people, although recognised in a range of instruments, is questionable. Their over-representation in the criminal justice system constitutes a complex human, social and economic problem and suggests the need to move beyond traditional theoretical approaches which examine social support systems, processes of criminal justice and the presence of impairment as separate issues. This article reflects on issues raised in a study investigating the pathways people with MHD&CD take through the criminal justice system and is aimed at describing and analysing the interactions among the criminal justice subsystems and associated human services using detailed records of a cohort (around 2800) of those already diagnosed in the criminal justice system. The outcomes will assist in the development of new interventions to address preventive health, duty of care and human rights. Early analysis of the data in the MHD&CD in the criminal justice system study indicates that individual experiences of impairment and social disadvantage are powerfully amplified when they intersect with exclusionary practices within social, systemic, community and institutional spaces. These findings suggest the need to develop a hybrid interdisciplinary theoretical perspective merging critical disability studies and critical criminology to open up new spaces from which to reconsider the complex matrix of concerns impacting upon this groups enjoyment of their rights.

Intellectual Disability and Complex Intersections: Marginalisation under the National Disability Insurance Scheme

This paper questions whether Australias new disability support regime, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), can meet its aims for people with disabilities who also experience complex social disadvantage, using the examples of people with intellectual disabilities from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds and those who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system. The paper undertakes a critical analysis of the proposed eligibility requirements under the NDIS and assesses the risks of marginalisation in the proposed approach for people with intellectual disabilities who also experience other complex individual and social disadvantage, and begins to ask, “Will the NDIS meet its aims if it does not address these complexities?” The analysis suggests that under the draft rules for eligibility the onus is on individuals to prove their eligibility for supports funded by the NDIS on a case-by-case basis and, moreover, to prove that receiving such support will reduce their future depende...

Support planning with people with intellectual disability and complex support needs in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

Support planning has emerged in the last decade in recognition of the rights of people with disability to determine the support they receive and has gained prominence as a process for allocating in...

Young People with Complex Needs in the Criminal Justice System

This paper explores key issues identified as operating in the early lives of young people who have complex needs that heighten their risk of involvement with the criminal justice system. These include those with cognitive disabilities and other co-occurring disabilities and social disadvantage. Aspects of current research are reviewed and summarised to identify some key factors evident in early life experience for young people in contact with the juvenile justice system. Implications for those who have complex needs are identified. The role of social factors and service systems in the lives of young people with complex needs is described and processes that appear to lead to their further disablement and incarceration are identified. The paper argues that the negative effect for young people of the intersection of cognitive disability, language, and mental health problems and social disadvantage early in life are significant. They include educational disengagement, precarious housing, and substance misuse,...

More, better, or different? NDIS workforce planning for people with intellectual disability and complex support needs

In Australia the disability sector is radically changing the way services are offered to people with disability under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS; National Disability Insurance S...

Cohort profile: a data linkage cohort to examine health service profiles of people with intellectual disability in New South Wales, Australia

Purpose People with intellectual disability are a minority group who experience poorer physical and mental health than the general population and have difficulty accessing healthcare services. There is lack of knowledge about healthcare service needs and gaps experienced by people with intellectual disability. This study aims to interrogate a large linked administrative data set containing hospital admissions, presentations to emergency departments (ED) and mortality data to provide evidence to inform the development of improved health and mental health services for this population. Participants A retrospective cohort of people with intellectual disability (n=51 452) from New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to explore health and mental health profiles, mortality, pattern of health service use and associated costs between 2005 and 2013. The cohort is drawn from: the Disability Services Minimum Data Set; Admitted Patients Data Collection; Emergency Department Data Collection, Australian Bureau of Statistics Death Registry and Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Mental health service usage among those with intellectual disability will be compared to a cohort of people who used mental health services (n=1 073 139) and service usage other than for mental health will be compared with published data from the general population. Findings to date The median age of the cohort was 24 at the time of the last hospital admission and 21 at the last ED presentation. The cohort has a higher proportion of men than women and accounts for 0.6% of the NSW population in 2011. Over 70% had up to 5 ED presentations and hospitalisations between 2005 and 2012. A high proportion of people with intellectual disability live in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Future plans Results will be used to inform the development of more responsive healthcare, including improved interactions between health, social and disability supports. More generally, the results will assist the development of more inclusive policy frameworks for people with intellectual disability.