Toward the end of last year Beverly Dawkins published the following article: Dawkins, B. (2009). Valuing Tom: will Valuing People Now change the lives of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities? Tizard Learning Disability Review, 14(4), 3-12.
It is a response to the UK Valuing People Now policy shift and its impact on people with PIMD in the UK. It highlights the many ways in which the current policy has let down people with PIMD:
– decreased access to day services
– poor planning
– continued discrimination in health context leading to uneccessary pain and, at times, death
– continued inadequate access to advocacy
– …
New initiatives attempting to improve the lives of people with PIMD in the UK are highlighted: Emerson’s demographic study, Mencap’s various studies…
Although this is based in the UK, I believe this is highly relevent in the Australian context, both in terms of current and future issues.
Category Archives: policy
Paradigms and pragmatics
I’m busily working on my thesis. Read this quote, which I thought was worth sharing.
“Although issues such as community-based supports, quality of life, and normalization remain equally important to nonambulatory persons with PMR [profound mental retardation], a failure to plan for their day-to-day needs can result in decreased access to appropriate health-care services, deterioration in functioning, and overreliance upon a group of poorly trained and isolate caregivers”
– Kobe, F. H., Mulick, J. A., Rash, T. A., & Martin, J. (1994). Nonambulatory persons with profound mental retardation: Physical, developmental, and behavioral characteristics. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 15(6), 413-423. doi: 10.1016/0891-4222(94)90026-4