Enabling Participation for Disabled Young People: Study Protocol. Paper Example

The study is positivistic research that involves assessing the mobility and participation levels of people in leisure, educational, and employment activities. The participants wore the GPS units and accelerometers for seven days (Carroll et al. 2018). Researchers would meet the participants daily and analyze the data. The main objective was to determine the mobility level of the participants and their extent of participation in various leisure, educational, and employment activities. The results varied with some days witnessing high activity levels and others significantly low levels.

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Article Two: Quantitative Research: Social Workers’ Perceptions of Mental of Mental

Illness

The study was a quantitative one and utilised a cross-sectional design approach. The researchers designed a survey on the perceptions of mental diseases to assess the social workers and their attitudes in matters concerning mental illnesses. The study aimed at determining the perceptions of social workers in handling people with mental illnesses and their related stigma. The second objective was to examine the level of education and personal and professional experience to show how they affect the perception of mental illness social workers (Nordlund 2016). The findings indicated that no significant correlation existed between having a personal experience with mental illness and perceptions of stigma. Similarly, the education level for social workers did not influence the segregation of people with mental illnesses.

Article Three: The Relationship between the Community Participation of Disabled Youth and Socioeconomic Factors: Mixed-Methods Approach in Rural Sri Lanka

The study sought to assess the level of community participation of the participants. The data used was extracted from the community-based rehabilitation (CBR) indicators (Higashida 2017). The second metric was the participants’ socioeconomic status, which was acquired by analysing the connection with CBR, past educational experience, economic conditions, and geographic features. The researchers assessed the impairment conditions of the participants using the disability assessment schedule by the World Health Organisation. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all the responses gathered from the evaluations done. The results were that the extent of global disability assessed by the disability assessment measure by the WHO was 49.0 after standardisation was done from zero to 100 (Higashida 2017). The median household income for the participants was 15,000, with about 44% earning below Rs. 12,400 (Higashida 2017). The participants’ level in community activities was generally low, and the only common form of community participation was cultural or religion-based.

Section Two: Interpretative Articles

Article One: Self- and Caregiver-Reported Experiences of Young Adults with Developmental Disabilities

The researchers sought to understand the developmental disabilities facing young adults. Therefore, they interviewed participants whose mean age was 24 years (Roush et al. 2007). Their narrative data was analysed and categorised into six themes: home life, relationships, health and health care, personal growth and accomplishments, transportation, and occupation. The results showed that the positive experiences were linked to the integrated comprehensive and timely services delivered by a knowledgeable service provider. Strong parental advocacy was the main factor that helped to ensure that their young ones accessed these services. The experiences were positive when the day-to-day activities occurred within a family as opposed to a broader community. The conclusion derived is that social workers have a role in creating positive experiences for young adults living with disabilities.

Article Two: Assessment of Integration of Disability Content into Social Work Education

In this study, the researchers aimed at identifying how much disability content is integrated into social work education. Ogden et al. (2017) launched a survey with members of the council on social work education. The study was related to the inclusion of disability content in social work courses. Respondents claimed that disability content is critical in social work education. However, they identified barriers such as lack of teaching resources. Therefore, the authors propose the strategies and resources for infusing disability content in social work education to enhance positive welfare development among youth with disabilities effectively.

Article Three: Commonalities and Differences in Social Work with Learning Disability and Child Protection: Findings from a UK ‘Burnout’ National Survey

The researchers analysed findings from a national survey of social workers conducted in the United Kingdom. The respondents reported working with persons with learning disabilities, and others claimed to work in child protection units. The comparisons were measured between social workers working in the two fields in a bid to determine the area with a higher-level commitment (McFadden et al. 2017). The extent of burnout was great for social workers working with adults with learning disabilities as opposed to child protection staff. The conclusion derived from the study is that it could be daunting for social workers to work with younger and older adults. However, their responsibility is to improve the lives of the society members.

Section Three: Discussion

Importantly, the young people with disabilities are the most marginalised persons in societies today. According to Tan and Yuen (2013), the youths with various forms of deformities have poor economic conditions and could face several social, economic, and civic disparities. From the articles analysed, one can see that the research by Higashida (2017) showed that persons with disabilities have poor economic conditions when compared to other members of the society. Other challenges experienced are exclusion, isolation, and abuse. In the study by Acker (2009), it has been documented that most youths with disabilities lack educational and economic opportunities. The social workers, through welfare development mechanisms, promote increased inclusion of children with disabilities. Welfare development is essential is creating community awareness, which, in turn, causes realisation of the human rights of young people living with disabilities (Pandya 2016). Besides, Craig et al. (2013) stipulated that the move towards poverty reduction and equitable development in countries should also ensure that the youths have equal opportunities to participate in and contribute to the society are different levels. Mainly, this move should also consist of the integration of children with disabilities.

Importantly, Judd et al. (2016) argued that there is a worrying trend in the prevalence of disabilities among youth. In the data provided by the United Nations, the number of children with disabilities and aged between 0 and 18 years were between 93 and 150 million (‘Youth with disabilities | United Nations Enable’ n.d). Although the figures may not be precise, they reflect the high number of youths living with disabilities existing in societies. According to Hooyman et al. (2013), the number is likely to increase due to the rise of impairment-causing diseases among the young people. More so, health conditions and injuries have become rampant among the group in question. Law et al. (2007) asserted that being youthful in itself can be a factor that yields disability since most of the people are engaged in the risk of acquiring the disability through road accidents, injuries from diving and other sporting activities, and frequent indulgence in violence and warfare. Failure to consider the economic situation of the youth disability could, in turn, affect the community due to the high number of young people with various kinds of deformities.

Social workers are committed to assisting disenfranchised persons in society, which is one distinguishing factor between social workers and other professions (Chitereka 2010). Social workers aim to reach out to persons with limited power in society. According to Cohen et al. (2012), social workers’ interventions are channelled towards enhancing the effectiveness of social structures and the provision of resources and opportunities for the disadvantaged people in communities such as the youth with disabilities. In the United kingdom’s Department of social welfare services, the role of the social workers is to prevent, cure, and rehabilitate facilities for disabled persons (Poppen et al. 2017). From Schneider’s (2015) perspective, disability care entails the improvement of the caregivers’ capacities to care for the disabled and facilitating their integration to mainstream schools and social settings. In addition to that, social workers work in psychiatric hospitals. In hospital settings, the social workers work with mentally-challenged patients and their families by providing the required form of counselling while also encouraging them to take their medications (Cobb et al. 2006). Mainly, these examples are some of the welfare development strategies employed by social workers to improve the living conditions of the people living with disabilities.

Another example of a welfare development strategy that would assist young people with disabilities is counselling them. According to Trip et al. (2015), counselling people with different forms of disabilities helps them to adjust accordingly. The adjustment could revolve around the persona, interpersonal, vocational, financial, family, and educational realms (Almqvist and Granlund 2005). In other situations, social workers counsel families with young persons with disabilities and teach them on the practical techniques of upbringing (Lightfoot et al. 2011). The counselling enables them to make the various adjustments that could help them deal with the personal and interpersonal concerns associated with disability.

Conclusion

Social workers’ primary role is to deal with people with disabilities and other disadvantaged persons in society in a bid to enhance their community integration. Youths with disabilities are frequently disadvantaged and are victims of economic, social, and civic disparities. In the United Kingdom, social workers are regularly engaging in activities that enhance the integration of youths with inequalities. One of the techniques employed includes the provision of counseling services to patients and their families. Counseling helps the families and victims to make relevant changes in their educational, family, and financial life.

References

Acker, GM 2009, ‘The Challenges in Providing Services to Clients with Mental Illness: Managed Care, Burnout and Somatic Symptoms Among Social Workers’, Community Mental Health Journal, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 591–600, http://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-009-9269-5 [Accessed 30 May 2020]

Almqvist, l & Granlund, M 2005, ‘Participation in school environment of children and youth with disabilities: A person-oriented approach’, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 305–314, http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2005.00460.x [Accessed 30 May 2020]

Carroll, P, Witten, K, Calder-Dawe, O, Smith, M, Kearns, R, Asiasiga, L, Lin, J, Kayes, N & Mavoa, S 2018, ‘Enabling participation for disabled young people: study protocol’, BMC Public Health, vol. 18, no. 1, http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5652-x [Accessed 30 May 2020]