article: “New school an option for kids struggling with autism”
The following article is worth discussing and analyzing from a Social Role Valorization and PASSING perspective:
New school an option for kids struggling with autism
This analysis could be carried out as part of an SRV workshop, in a university classroom, as part of an SRV study group, etc. Several elements could be analyzed from the perspective of imagery, such as the article title, the name of the human service program, etc. What do these images communicate about the children and adolescents served?
In terms of societal devaluation, wounding and heightened vulnerability, consider the often-related realities of segregation and congregation.
The proposed schedule (“The school runs year-round, with 226 school days per year, and only two weeks off in the summer”) could be discussed from both an image perspective and a competency perspective. Several PASSING ratings would be relevant to this analysis.
Other issues touched upon in the article include grouping size, the role of staff, and the program location–especially its history and former usage.
Marc Tumeinski
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guest post: most recent update on an SRV-10 study group in Australia
Much thanks to John Armstrong for sharing this update:
“Session Three of the 2nd Australian SRVx10 Study Group are meeting in the home of John and Lynne Armstrong for 4 days this week. This session also sees the completion of 5 sessions for Mary Kealy, who has been completing sessions in both Australia and Ireland. Mary has completed her 5 sessions in exactly 12 months. This means Mary has now taught the entire SRVx10 workshop once and heard it presented in its entirety 5 times. Mary hopes to continue her SRV learning journey by joining some of the training efforts of Jo Massarelli, Marc Tumeinski and others later in 2015, as well as continue along with the Irish study group. Congratulations Mary!”
~ John Armstrong
(NB: Mary Kealy and John Armstrong are plenary speakers at the upcoming International SRV conference in June 2015. This SRV study group model will also be the topic of one of the concurrent sessions. If you haven’t registered yet, you still have time to do so before February 20 and receive the early registration discount.)
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recent news item relevant to imagery
This recent news item has some relevance to what Social Role Valorization (SRV) teaches about the goal and means of image enhancement: to help vulnerable and societally devalued people to have societally valued roles, and thus to open the door to having the ‘good things of life’ which most people in a society want and expect.
A quote from the article:
“Our primary concern is to give people their dignity,” Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, head of the Office of Papal Charities, told the Italian news agency ANSA. In November, construction started on new showers and bathrooms for the homeless under the colonnades of St. Peter’s Square. The archbishop, who oversaw the project, set aside space for a barber. He noted the difficulty that the homeless face in washing themselves, which in turn helps cause others to reject them—or causes them to fear rejection.
Among other things, this has relevance to heightened vulnerability, negative perception followed by negative treatment, image enhancement, personal appearance, and access to the good things of life. See for example the 3rd rev. ed. of the SRV monograph by Wolfensberger, pp. 65, 68 on imagery.
Unfortunately, this new barber shop will be open on Mondays, when, according to the article, barber shops in Rome are traditionally closed. This contradicts the SRV approach of following cultural norms, including in terms of activities and time use. See also the PASSING manual, R132 lmage Projection of Service Activities and Activity Timing.
Marc Tumeinski
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In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: good things of life, heightened vulnerability, image enhancement, PASSING, personal appearance, Social Role Valorization, societal devaluation, SRV
article: “The Talking Cure”
This New Yorker article is interesting to read and analyze carefully from an SRV perspective, including in terms of:
• the developmental model
• the pedagogic power of imitation
• model coherency (assumptions of the model, who are the people being served and what are their pressing needs, who are the servers, what methods are being used, etc.)
Marc Tumeinski
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NY Times article: ‘Rikers to Ban Isolation for Inmates 21 and Younger’
This NY Times article would be interesting to read, analyze and discuss from an SRV perspective (e.g., in an SRV study group, university class, etc.). Some angles for analysis and discussion might include:
• segregation and congregation of prisoners
• lack of culturally valued analogues for prison
• interpersonal identification (or lack thereof) between guards and prisoners, between the public and prisoners
• developmental model, and what this can teach about prolonged social isolation
• model coherency applied to the prison model
• the role of guard
• the role of prisoner
And so on.
Marc Tumeinski
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Washington Post article: ‘In transition to independent living, the ‘dignity of risk’ for the mentally ill’
A sadly revealing article about the societal devaluation and wounding which too often surrounds mental disorder and poverty. Note the use of ‘dignity of risk’ language, though it hardly seems to reflect what Perske meant, nor how it is described in Social Role Valorization.
Marc Tumeinski
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article: ‘NY dinner puts wealthy and homeless at same tables’
Take a look at this recent news item from a Social Role Valorization (SRV) perspective.
It could make for a good exercise to read and analyze this from various SRV angles, such as interpersonal identification, vulnerability, image enhancement, image communicators, language use, physical and social setting, personal social integration and valued social/societal participation, etc.
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strengthening SRV-related work internationally
I am pleased to share the following message and request from Betsy Neuville for your review and input.
Marc Tumeinski
“I am writing on behalf of a small group of North American SRV Council members and associated others who have been working together to explore ways to strengthen and fortify SRV teaching, dissemination, and implementation. In particular, we are interested in creating a structure to provide institutional support for these functions, and perhaps most importantly, creating a public face for SRV. We propose to do this via the creation of an International Association for SRV.
Those places in the world that have smaller SRV movements, or that have developing interest, would be especially served by this, but also those who want to collaborate and associate with SRV-related groups and events, keep their eyes on what is happening globally, connect with local SRV groups, order SRV materials in an easy fashion, and have access to resources and information.
We are an informal, voluntary group which recognizes that we need to focus our efforts on what can be done given the human resources available, and that we should only “take on” what can be actually delivered and done with competence.
We would appreciate your help by reviewing a very brief paper, which details what we propose are the “5 tasks” which we think are the likely places to apply our efforts, with some potential future ideas as well. We would appreciate your careful review of this brief paper, and also your answers to a few open-ended questions via an on-line survey.
If you are interested and willing, please contact Betsy Neuville at eneuvill@keystonehumanservices.org, and she will send you the material and the link.
Thanks in advance for your interest and assistance.”
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NY Times article: To Siri With Love: How One Boy With Autism Became BFF With Apple’s Siri
This recent article in the NY Times would make a good basis for a Social Role Valorization-based exercise or discussion, in an agency, study group or university class. It would require thinking about multiple elements–first individually, and then collectively. This is one of the strengths of SRV and PASSING: that it teaches people how to think about a particular issue by itself, and then how it interacts with other issues. For example, during a PASSING workshop, team members consider each rating on its own first, and then later think about how they might combine (e.g., in the PASSING rating clusters, during the process of calculating the PASSING score and subscores, etc.).
Some of the elements that might be analyzed in this article from an SRV perspective include:
• societally valued roles (e.g., of student, of teacher)
• image enhancement (e.g., language used about Gus)
• competency enhancement (e.g., around conversation with other people, about etiquette)
• ‘tools’ (R233 competency-related personal possessions in the PASSING manual)
• what is culturally normative, and what is culturally valued (e.g., about friendship)
The article also discussed the issue of parental fears and concerns, a topic written about by Wolfensberger in The Future of Children With Significant Impairments: What Parents Fear and Want, and What They and Others May Be Able To Do About It)
Marc Tumeinski
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Nancy Artz Wolfensberger
Nancy Artz Wolfensberger, 73, of Syracuse, NY, passed away Sunday, August 10, 2014, at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Born in Commiskey, IN, she lived in Syracuse from 1972, after residing for a number of years in Omaha, NE, and Toronto, Canada.
Nancy was devoted to her family, and loved to cook, entertain, travel, garden and sing in the All Saints Church gospel choir. She divided her time in recent years between Syracuse and her family farm in Commiskey, IN. For several years she served on the Board of Visitors of the Syracuse Developmental Center. She was predeceased in 2011 by her husband of 51 years, Wolf P. Wolfensberger.
She is survived by her daughters, Margaret (Tim) Sager of Philadelphia and Joan (Kurt) Lloyd of Chicago; son, Paul (Patrice) Wolfensberger of Knoxville, TN; grandchildren, Tate, Jennifer and Hadley Sager; as well as her sister, Betty (Gerald) Manning and her family.
Calling hours will be from 1 to 2 p.m. at All Saints Church, 1340 Lancaster Place, Syracuse, NY 13210, on Thursday, August 14, 2014, with the funeral service immediately following. She will be buried in Commiskey, IN, where another service will be held.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the University of Nebraska Foundation, for the Wolfensberger Collection at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (for information see http://unmc.libguides.com/Wolfensberger or contact John Schleicher at jschleicher@unmc.edu or 402-559-7094.)
The Wolfensberger family would like to express its heartfelt thanks to friends and family, and the staff on 3-2 at St. Joseph’s, who provided Nancy with such wonderful support.
Share condolences at www.fairchildmeech.com
Date of Death: August 10, 2014
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