slide show referencing Wolfensberger’s description of devalued roles
Online resource about prejudice and stereotypes around impairment. The slide show cites Bogdan and Biklen, Allport, as well as Wolfensberger on socially devalued roles.
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article: Client Oriented Role Evaluation
Darene Toal-Sullivan & Peter R. Henderson. (March/April 2004). “Client-Oriented Role Evaluation (CORE): The Development of a Clinical Rehabilitation Instrument to Assess Role Change Associated With Disability.” The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58(2), 211-220.
This article describes an assessment tool (CORE) which the authors recommend be used in rehabilitation and occupational therapy services. The article and the assessment tool explicitly incorporate elements of role theory. For example, the authors describe the reality of role loss upon someone becoming physically and/or intellectually impaired. They also propose setting particular role goals (e.g., to regain the role of worker, mother, PTA chair, etc.) to help guide and motivate the rehabilitation process.
The article briefly lays out some of the elements of role theory and then applies these to rehabilitation. Many of these concepts clearly resonate with SRV theory and application (e.g., role performance, role activities, link between roles and identity, expectations, status, role domains, skill acquisition, the role communicator of physical setting, etc.).
Though focused on rehabilitation and occupational therapy upon someone becoming impaired, the authors briefly mention the possible relevance of the CORE tool to aging and disability services more broadly.
In light of SRV, the article does not mention anything related to imagery or image enhancement. Wolfensberger’s formulation of SRV proposes both image enhancement and competency enhancement as the key strategies to help a devalued person or group to gain or hold onto valued social roles. Nor does the article discuss the reality of societally devalued roles; again, a key component of SRV and PASSING training.
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A few new online resources mentioning Social Role Valorization theory and training
I recently ran across these online resources which mention SRV:
http://www.scoop.it/t/waardevolle-sociale-rollen
http://www.scoop.it/t/everything-srv
http://www.scoop.it/t/social-role-valorisation
Marc Tumeinski
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Globe and Mail article: ‘The awful truth about social programs’
This Globe and Mail article comments on the lack of efficacy of human service programs in Toronto, particularly those aimed at serving poor people. These comments should sound familiar to those who have studied Social Role Valorization (SRV) and the related assessment tool PASSING, and by no means is limited to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, or poverty programs. Whether you agree or not with the writer’s assessment, it at least underscores the potential utility of regular, external assessment of human service programs, based on measurable, objective criteria. The PASSING tool specifically does this based on the criteria of Social Role Valorization.
A couple quotes from the article:
• “The evidence to date – such as it is – suggests that many, perhaps most, social programs do not make a difference, except to the legions of administrators and social workers who are directly and indirectly employed in delivering them.” Wolf Wolfensberger taught about this idea often, relating it to the post-primary production form of most modern economic systems in developed countries. The ‘need’ for jobs drives the creation of new societally devalued groups as well as keeping currently devalued groups in deviant status. This also raises the question of the pervasiveness of unconsciousness surrounding these economic factors as well as the failure of human services.
• “Some small, inexpensive interventions appear to work reasonably well.” Students and practitioners of SRV might think about the power of crafting valued social roles on the personal level (see page 78 in the 3rd edition of the SRV monograph).
The article also points out how many of these poverty programs are driven by non-programmatic considerations, including historical political decisions.
Marc Tumeinski
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SRV in the News – Chy Johnson and Her Boys
This article (Chy Johnson and Her Boys) caught the eyes of a member of the Southern Ontario SRV study group of which I am a member.
By now, many of you may have seen the article as well, but it is worth pulling out a few points of the article to illustrate the SRV lessons it contains.
One point that we talked about in our study group was the idea of value by association. The young girl featured in the article, Chy, benefits from the positive juxtaposition to the valued football players at her school. As Wolfensberger (1998) states in the SRV Monograph: “A party’s image will also be profoundly affected by the people with whom that party is associated, as captured in the folk phrase that people are ‘judged by the company they keep’” (p. 64). While we often see this playing out in negative ways (such as when people with physical impairments are juxtaposed, i.e. served in the same programs, as people with intellectual impairments), I believe that this article presents a positive example of image juxtaposition.
Of course, the article isn’t perfect as there are certainly some image issues with how Chy herself is portrayed. For example language such as “Chy’s brain works at only a third grade level…” effectively places Chy in the (eternal) child role.
This article contains several other SRV issues that I have not commented on. Please feel free to bring these to our attention in the comments section.
Steve Tiffany
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article: ‘New psychiatric treatment center opening today’
The 16 August 2012 article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette entitled ‘New psychiatric treatment center opening today’ describes the first new psychiatric facility built in Massachusetts since the 1950s. The new building is located on the grounds of the Worcester State Hospital, built in the 1830s.
A couple SRV-relevant points:
• The article mentions that the new building will focus on “physical health and wellness” and promote “exercise, movement, nutrition, fresh air and access to sunlight.” I have not seen the new building so I cannot vouch for this, and it remains to be seen whether such a focus is actually implemented for anyone institutionalized there. Keep in mind also that this is still a segregated, congregated service. However, it is interesting that this language is resonant with the history of the moral treatment movement, which was put into practice at the Worcester Asylum for a period of time. Note also that moral treatment was one of the topics which Dr. Wolfensberger taught about frequently, and which he cited as a forerunner of normalization and Social Role Valorization.
• From the article:
The hospital features all private rooms and freedom of movement from a patient’s room to a ‘neighborhood’ of other patients to a ‘downtown’ and ultimately to an outdoor ‘village green’ that takes advantage of perimeter security for the hospital.
In case it is not apparent, the ‘neighborhood’ and ‘downtown’ are physically inside the new building, and the ‘village green’ is miles from any actual village or downtown. From an SRV perspective, consider this in light of language as an image- and role-communicator. Does such language in a newspaper article reinforce any negative stereotypes about adults with mental disorder? What about when further considered in light of the phrases ‘perimeter security’ and ‘hospital’? How does such language and imagery shape the way that others will perceive and therefore likely treat adults with mental disorders? What ‘good things of life’ may then be seen as legitimate to deny or limit to adults with mental disorders? What kinds of language and practices would potentially be more role-valorizing?
By the way, such phrases as ‘neighborhood,’ ‘downtown’ and ‘village green’ are often also used by nursing homes, which points out the universality of some of these practices.
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children’s book: The case of the deadly desperados
I am looking for someone to review a children’s book entitled ‘The case of the deadly desperados‘ by Caroline Lawrence. I would like it for The SRV Journal so the review would need to be from an SRV perspective. What sparked my interest was a review of the book in the NY Times Book Review of 12 February 2012, in which the reviewer wrote that “though the story never says so, it’s clear P.K. has what today we would call Asperger’s syndrome or high-functioning autism.” I do not know if that is just the reviewer’s perspective or if it is what the author Caroline Lawrence intended.
If any of our blog readers would be interested in reading the book (and perhaps reading it along with a young reader too! the book is intended for ages 8-12) and submitting a review to the Journal, we’d love to get it. The Journal link above will take you to our book review guidelines.
Marc Tumeinski
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Prisons and ‘setting access’
This NY Times article entitled ‘Alabama’s White Elephant’ describes several likely problematic consequences of a new federal prison for women being built in Alabama (US). Many of these problems can be framed and understood in an SRV/PASSING context. It would also be possible to draw out even more likely negative consequences which are not mentioned in the article, but also to draw up potentially valid steps aimed at reducing the impacts of social and societal devaluation and wounding. This would make a good exercise for an SRV study/discussion group and/or university classroom.
I will point out just one issue identified in the article: “for many of the prisoners, the rural isolation of this expensive facility will hurt their chances of returning permanently to their families and communities after doing their time.” We might consider this issue against the particular backdrop of the PASSING tool–for example, the rating R2111 Setting Access–Recipients and Families (p. 291 in the 2007 edition)–and ask ourselves: what are the likely negative consequences on the competencies of the women prisoners as a result of such dislocation? How about the likely negative consequences on any valued social roles which the women had prior to incarceration–how likely are the women to be able to sustain and/or return to these valued roles after they are released? What steps might help to shore up any valued roles? What steps might help to minimize the negative consequences of the wounds of distantiation, segregation and congregation? And so on.
Also note the powerful non-programmatic issue raised by the author of the newspaper article: “Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama pushed hard for Aliceville, promoting the prison as a boon to economic development and a source of jobs for a needy part of the state. For a generation, that rationale has helped justify expanding America’s prison system.”
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SRV Journal focus question: December 2010
The following focus question was published in the December 2010 issue of The SRV Journal. I look forward to your replies, thoughts, reflections and related questions:
“From an SRV perspective, ‘integration’ means ‘personal social integration & valued social participation.’ This in turn would require (a) valued participation, (b) with valued people (c) in valued activities that (d) take place in valued settings” (Wolfensberger, 1998, p. 123). In light of this understanding, remember the first time(s) as an adult that you were an active, ongoing participant in a particular activity & social group/setting. What valued role were you in? What roles were the other people in the social group/setting in? Who did you look to as role models? What ‘good things of life’ did this role open the door to? How did you initially become involved? When & how often did you participate? Where did the activity take place? And so on.
Drawing on this personal reflection, what can you learn, adapt & use to help societally devalued people/groups to acquire & maintain valued social roles in valued contexts & valued activities with other people in valued roles? Keep in mind that valued social roles are key to personal social integration & valued social participation. Lemay explicitly frames integration in terms of valued roles: “(valued) social participation requires a (valued) role in a given (valued) context; personal social integration is said to be occurring when an individual is engaged in (valued) reciprocated role activities with other (valued) role incumbents in a given (valued) social setting” ([2006]. Social Role Valorization insights into the social integration conundrum. Mental Retardation, 44(1), 5).
Marc Tumeinski
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SRV Journal focus question: June 2010
The following focus question was published in the June 2010 issue of The SRV Journal. I look forward to your replies, thoughts, reflections and related questions:
One aspect of the SRV theme of interpersonal identification is that “if devalued people are to have a chance of receiving the good things in life from the rest of society, then it is important that things be done which help valued people to identify with–i.e., to see themselves in, and as similar to–devalued people” (Wolfensberger, 1998, p. 119).
Think of a time when you were reminded of the humanity you share with a devalued person. What did you think & feel, & what effect did this have on you & on the relationship? How can engaging in interpersonal identification help you to more fully understand the most pressing, immediate & urgent needs of socially devalued people? (cf. Wolfensberger, 1998, pp. 111-112.) Be mindful of both image & competency needs.
What helps interpersonal identification to occur? As well, what barriers get in the way of human service programs a) identifying with socially devalued people & b) understanding their most pressing needs? What can be done to minimize or compensate for these barriers at the level of human service staff, programs, organizations & systems?
Marc Tumeinski
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