Suchergebnisse

There is growing international interest in service user involvement in social work education, but some service user groups are more likely to be included than others. This article explores the possibility of involving male service users who use intimate partner violence in Australian social work education. The article describes focus groups conducted separately with social work students and men who use intimate partner violence, which explored participants' understandings of lived experience, service user involvement in social work education and the place of men who use intimate partner violence in the social work academy. The findings suggest it may be possible to involve previously excluded service user groups in social work education.

Drawing on a small-scale qualitative study of the life experiences of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) in the UK, this paper explores the formal and informal supports used by the adults to achieve and maintain a lifestyle of their choice. Many adults with CF do not have visible impairments and are faced with deciding to disclose CF so they can claim the formal supports of independent living, or presenting as 'normal' and forfeiting the formal supports which may accompany disclosure. At an individual level, both strategies can offer a route to a 'normal life'. However, wider analysis of independent living and formal and informal supports in the lives of adults with CF is overdue; this paper presents an initial such analysis in the context of the UK coalition government's vision for adult social care and the voluntarism of 'Big Society'.

A range of national and international actors and networks have claimed to support the interests of people with learning difficulties over the last 30 years. This article examines their influence on UK policy for people with learning difficulties, with a particular focus on the recent policy shift towards individualised support and personalisation. Policy changes and developments within the UK are considered in the context of similar developments internationally and the article questions the extent to which personalisation can be sustained in the face of the scale and economic rationality of global markets. Finally, an alternative, more accountable, model of individualised support is proposed.