Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe Australian disability workforce has grown, and there is compelling evidence that peer work has a number of valuable impacts. Despite these apparent opportunities, there continue to be high levels of unemployment among people with disability and failure to draw on the assets of people with disability in Australian workplaces. To understand these ostensible missed opportunities, this study examined the ways in which lived experience was described as an asset in disability workforce recruitment. Advertisements for positions in New South Wales, Australia, that referred to lived experience or peer work and disability were collected over a 3‐month period. Through a process of content analysis, we found that there were more employment opportunities for people with lived experience of mental illness than for other types of disability. Community engagement was a key function, and peer workers were described as complementary to professionals. Recruitment processes for lived experience jobs were not necessarily accessible. We recommend systemic reforms to facilitate recognition of lived experience as a valuable criterion for disability sector employment and to harness the benefits of a disability peer workforce.

Summary This article considers the place of service-user knowledge and expertise within an evidence-based practice perspective. It makes a strong argument that client involvement is a core principle of Sackett et al.'s foundational approach in evidence-based medicine. In so doing, it draws on research on service-users' perceptions and experiences of evidence-based practice. Findings For service users, evidence-based practice lacks relevance and trustworthiness unless it explicitly factors in the expertise of service users themselves. Evidence-based practice is seen to have merit as a tool for enhancing accountability, but service users see a role for themselves at individual and representative levels in the process of evidence-based practice. They place a high value on the expertise derived from lived experience, and recognise that fluctuations in capacity and changes in circumstances of many service users require a flexible approach to their participation in decision making. A pragmatic approach to the conceptualisation of evidence is recommended, which not only maintains scientific rigour inherent in evidence-based practice but also more strongly emphasises the process of analysing evidence appropriate to a particular individual's preferences and circumstances. Applications For human service practitioners, this study emphasises the need to develop professional skills in assessing the capacities, circumstances and preferences of clients and analysing and applying evidence for practice in ways that conform to a client-centred approach. It also indicates a need for researchers and practitioners to recognise and value service-user expertise.

This article is a study of how Nottinghamshire Drug and Alcohol Action Team used Drug Intervention Programme monies to support partnership working in Nottinghamshire to secure supported housing for drug‐using offenders who were fast‐tracked into treatment by their involvement with the Criminal Justice System. The article identifies lessons learnt in relation to partnership engagement, community involvement and the importance of involving wrap‐around services in holistic delivery of supported housing and treatment. It also identifies the ongoing challenges of meeting the needs of service users alongside those of housing providers, and looks at very quick wins in relation to housing for substance misusers from bond schemes and use of established debt advisors who can support individuals in their resettlement needs.

Abstract
In this article, we use a collaborative approach to autoethnography to explore experiences of power in relation to our identities as people with disabilities and/or mental illnesses. We draw on elements of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems framework to consider how we enact our own power or struggle against systemic power in making meaning of our lives. As a team of lived experience researchers we wrote, shared and thematically analysed a series of narratives about our personal (microsystem) and institutional (macrosystem) relationships. Through this research process we were able to identify common experiences of being resilient in the face of institutions that dehumanised and problematised us and tried to render us voiceless—exerting 'power over'. In contrast, reflections on our personal relationships highlighted experiences of reciprocity, respect and autonomy that energised our efforts towards meaningful and powerful identities—'power with'. We conclude that by generating strength through our own advocacy, perseverance and caring relationships, we engage dynamics (mesosystem) of empowerment and identity to resist oppressive power at structural levels. This exemplifies the importance of person-centred social work premised on self-determination, autonomy and dignity, and socially just social work that advocates for equitability and fights structural discrimination.

Gray M., Davies K., Butcher L. Finding the right connections: Peer support within a community‐based mental health serviceThis article reports on a qualitative study that examined the organisational enablers and barriers to implementing peer support work in an Australian, rural, community‐based mental health service. Interviews with 19 peer and non‐peer staff were conducted to identify attitudes towards peer support and whether there were organisational values, practices and strategies that might support the implementation of peer support. The findings revealed that peer support workers were valued for their ability to build trusting connections with clients and to accept client choice in a non‐judgemental way. However, peer support workers tended to 'fill service gaps' within intensive, administrative case‐management environments. These findings highlight the importance of an organisational‐wide approach to integrating peer support, where the responsibilities for adopting new ways of working fall to all staff, not just the peer support workers themselves.Key Practitioner Message: • Practitioners placed high value on the peer support workers on their teams due to their unique personalised engagement with clients; • The roles of peer support workers were poorly understood by team members; • Organisational integration of peer support principles could improve the way all staff engage with clients to reflect a recovery orientation.

Models of service‐user participation have derived from citizenship or consumerist agendas, neither of which has achieved the structural reforms important for the most marginalised social work clients. This article proposes Fraser's model of 'parity of participation' as an appropriately multifaceted frame for capturing the social justice aspirations of service‐user participation. A qualitative case study compared the experiences and expectations of people who had used Australian mental health services with a sample who had used Australian homelessness services to examine their expectations of participation at individual and representative levels. The findings reinforce concerns from Fraser's research about the tendency for identity‐based consumerist notions of participation to reify group identity. This leads to tokenistic service‐user involvement strategies that have little impact on participation at a structural level. Fraser's parity of participation is shown to have untested potential to reshape service‐user participation to meet the social justice aspirations of social work clients.Key Practitioner Message: ● Innovative, service‐user driven strategies for collaboration will be those which challenge existing power structures; ● Service users want their contributions to decision making to generate identifiable change in the system of social services; ● The success of service‐user participation strategies might be the extent to which political, economic and cultural opportunities are enhanced.

Cadre de la recherche : À côté des pères « classiques », reliés génétiquement à leur enfant et conjoint de la mère, il existe des pères adoptifs, des pères seuls, des beaux-pères, des pères non génétiques. Au sein de cette diversité apparaissent les pères gays. Mais choisir la paternité gay est un phénomène relativement récent qui nécessite d'affronter un environnement légal et social hostile et qui défie les normes de genre.
Objectifs : Explorer les représentations de la parenté et de la paternité et notamment l'importance accordée ou non au lien génétique chez les pères gays ayant eu recours à une gestation pour autrui.
Méthodologie : L'article s'appuie sur des entretiens menés auprès de 36 hommes gays en couple qui ont eu recours à la gestation pour autrui pour devenir père d'un enfant ou de jumeaux agés d'environ 4 mois.
Résultats : Probablement conscients de l'importance accordée au lien génétique dans les représentations sociales dominantes, les pères interrogés sont très attentifs à ce que leurs proches ne fassent pas de distinction. Mais ces mêmes représentations ne sont pas absentes chez ces pères, notamment au moment de la mise en œuvre de la conception. En effet, un certain nombre d'entre eux a implanté des embryons de l'un et de l'autre pour se donner une chance d'avoir des jumeaux génétiquement reliés à chacun des pères. Dans le cas d'une deuxième GPA, ils tiennent assez souvent à ce que le deuxième enfant (deuxième jumeau ou grossesse future) soit du père qui n'a pas donné son sperme la première fois.
Conclusions : Les observations recueillies montrent que les représentations de la paternité sont diversifiées et combinent des représentations fondées sur l'engendrement avec des représentations davantage fondées sur la parentalité.
Contribution : L'article met en évidence la complexité des représentations de la paternité. Celles-ci ne se résument pas aux liens biogénétiques mais accordent également une grande importance aux liens électifs.