Idea for an article, from Dr. Wolfensberger

In his June 2010 column SRV News & Reviews (in the SRV Journal), Dr. Wolfensberger writes:

We suggest that readers give some thought to the difference between saying that somebody “has X” versus that somebody “is X,” as perhaps in “he has autism” versus “he is autistic,” or “she has dyslexia” or “is dyslexic.” “Has” subtly implies the presence of a disease or medical diagnosis; “is” seems more descriptive. “Has” also implies the need for others to “intervene,” which is much less implied in “is.” Compare these phrases: “So-and-so has stinginess” versus “so-and-so is stingy.”  Perhaps someone would like to write a lengthy analysis of this issue for this Journal.

OK, there is your challenge. Now start researching and writing!

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‘SRV in Action’: a new newsletter from Values in Action Association Inc.

From Values in Action Association in Australia, I just received the first issue of their newsletter ‘SRV in Action.’ It is 8 pages, with a nice clean design that is easy to read. It includes brief articles on SRV-related topics, columns (including one that will highlight/review journal articles, ‘letters to the editor’ and ‘my favorite SRV concept’). The newsletter also includes a list of SRV contacts in Australia and New Zealand. This would be a great resource to get and read, which you can do by contacting Greg Mackay at viaainc@gmail.com. This would also make a good handout at workshops or to give to people you run across in your work who might be interested in SRV.

I’ve attached VIAA_Edition 1 and I encourage you to get in touch with Greg to get your own! It is available in PDF and, for a modest fee, in print.

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online resource: Keystone Institute

The Keystone Institute is the training arm of Keystone Services, a large human service agency headquartered in Pennsylvania. Since its inception in 1972, Keystone has been influenced by and supportive of Normalization and later Social Role Valorization related training and implementation.

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Social roles and suicide risk

“Occupations that offer strong social roles, such as teaching, appear to protect against suicide.”

The above is a quote from an article sent to me by Ray Lemay. The article describes research on connections between employment roles, as well as unemployment, with suicide risk. This brief article raises questions of heightened vulnerability. The findings described in the article also point out perhaps the range of social value found among different social roles, even valued social roles, as well as how accessibility to the good things of life can vary among different valued social roles.

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Dr. Elaine Smokewood

In Social Role Valorization (SRV), one of the points we make in teaching about social roles is that a valued role can be protective, even when someone ends up with a significant impairment after acquiring the role, and how important it is to shore up someone’s valued roles, particularly if they do become quite sick, become significantly impaired, become poor, and so on.

In this article we read about Dr. Elaine Smokewood, an English professor at Oklahoma City University (US). A couple years ago, Dr. Smokewood lost the ability to speak (wound of physical impairment) and yet continues in her valued social role as university professor. We learn from the article that she is also in the related valued role of English department colleague and in the valued role of published poet.

The above link connects to both an article as well as a brief video. In the video, as well as in comments from readers below the article, her students make a point of referring to her as Dr. Smokewood, though the article refers to her as Ms. Smokewood. As we teach in SRV, language is one of the ways in which social roles are communicated.

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Reflect on roles: role domains

Thinking about our own roles can deepen our understanding of how to help socially devalued people to get and hold onto valued roles, and to help vulnerable people to keep and shore up their valued social roles.

Social roles can be categorized into a number of role domains, such as relationship, work, education, leisure, community, culture, home (residence), etc. (p. 30, A brief introduction to Social Role Valorization, Wolfensberger, Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry, 2004).

Within any role domain, a particular society (the larger society like the US, Canada or Australia for e.g., but also ‘lower order’ societies like the state or province you live in, the town or city you live in, and so on) will have valued role examples as well as devalued role examples. What roles do you have in your own culture in these different domains? Is one domain more dominant in your life than the others, in terms of importance, time spent in that role, etc.? Let us know what you come up with.

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Material on social roles on history website

Reference to social roles on a world history website. Note the links to SRV material under ‘Related resources.’

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‘Therapy from dusk to dawn’

A 14 June 2009 NY Times article entitled ‘For Dementia’s Restless Minds, Therapy From Dusk to Dawn’ described a human service program at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale (NY, US). From the article:

The patients were on the loose again, moving their shrunken frames through the nursing home’s shadowy halls, chattering and giggling like children sneaking out of camp.

A study of the imagery and role communicators in that one sentence alone could make for an entire workshop on the social devaluation and vulnerability of elders within human services. The article makes points related to imagery, role communicators, programmatic and non-programmatic factors, child role, heightened vulnerability, power of expectations, stereotypes, segregation and congregation, sick and death imagery.

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Another blog posting about Wolfensberger’s article on shrinking financial resources

Wolfensberger’s April 2010 article (and recent workshops being taught in Massachusetts and Ontario) on how services should function in times of shrinking financial resources is generating lots of comments. This blog has several lengthy posts on the article.

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Online resource: Social Role Valorization

John Armstrong, an SRV trainer in Australia, runs this SRV website with loads of information about upcoming training events, articles, etc. It also has information about the upcoming SRV conference in Australia.

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