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Togetherness

Togetherness. Supporting parents with intellectual difference. Literature. People with intellectual difference – especially women desire to be parents because they seem themselves as having the capacity to be a loving and caring mother (and father).

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Togetherness

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  1. Togetherness Supporting parents with intellectual difference

  2. Literature People with intellectual difference – especially women desire to be parents because they seem themselves as having the capacity to be a loving and caring mother (and father). Children love their parents regardless of individual difference or diversity. Do we have another stolen generation?

  3. Literature Disability marks the last frontier of unquestioned inferiority because the preference for able-bodiedness makes it extremely difficult to embrace disabled people and to recognise their unnecessary and violent exclusion from society (Siebers, 2008:6)

  4. Literature 1% of parents in Australia have an intellectual disability and their children are removed at a rate of around 43%. McConnell et al 2000) UK research a suggests 40-60% removal rate of children from parents with intellectual difference (Booth &Booth, 1999: 464)

  5. Literature The three central issues identified in this study- • Children are removed from a parents care with little or no evidence of maltreatment. • Any difficulty that a person has is attributed to the disability not to other life deficits—poverty, poor housing, harassments, social isolation and lack of appropriate social supports. • That no actions are taken to remedy parent’s deficiencies before the child is removed McConnell, Llewellyn and Ferronato, 2000

  6. Literature • Lamont (2008) states clearly that the presence of intellectual disability is a poor predictor of capacity to parent • Yet it is IQ that is the dominant discourse in operation in child protection and family law. • Current research reveals that it is very rare for a parent to abuse their child if anything does occur it is typically neglect and this is neglect by omission – not knowing.

  7. Literature What is an intellectual disability - an IQ under 70 and deficits in adaptive behavior Hayes 2009. Who are the parents you work with in your organisations.

  8. Literature • Stigma • The other - other (Rapley 2004) • Discrimination • Poverty • Isolation • Capacity • Love • Feelings

  9. Literature Presumption 1 • of inevitable maltreatment (McConnell, Llewellyn, & Ferronato, 2000: 2) this includes the presumption of incompetence, that is there, is an immediate recognition of the disability as a deficit which will result in one being judged as unfit for parenting, without consideration of any alternatives (Booth &Booth, 1999: 464; McConnell, Llewellyn, & Ferronato, 2003: 1; McConnell & Llewellyn, 2002; McConnell & Llewellyn, 1998

  10. Literature Presumption 2 • of difficulties in managing one’s life are often attributed to the disability rather than the social construction of disability (McConnell, Llewellyn & Ferronato, 2000: 2) this results in blaming the victim (Booth &Booth, 1999: 465) when in fact the difficulties derive from poverty, poor housing, harassment, social isolation and lack of appropriate services (McConnell, Llewellyn & Ferronato, 2000: 2; McConnell & Llewellyn, 1998).

  11. Literature Presumption 3 • that parents are innately inadequate and their parenting deficiencies irremediable because of their disability (Hayman, 1990; Hertz, 1979; Levesque, 1996 in McConnell, Llewellyn, & Ferronato, 2000: 2; McConnell & Llewellyn, 2002; McConnell & Llewellyn, 1998). Parents are often deskilled and encouraged to put the practitioner in control (Booth & Booth, 1993c in Booth & Booth, 1999: 465), later when they are assessed by the very same services (that took away their skills and control) they are described as lacking agency and skills to parent (McConnell & Llewellyn, 1998)

  12. Literature • New knowledge • Humans with feelings • Role of mental health for these parents • Nueuroplacticity – brains that change. • Social construction • Principles of educational practice. • Powerful, potent, precise.

  13. Literature Current practice • The denial of parents' legal rights; • The denial of appropriate supports and services to parents before their children are permanently removed; • In the absence of clear guidelines as to what constitutes adequate care, child protection workers and courts imposing their own biases on proceedings; • The enormous weight given to the assessment of 'experts', particularly when this rests so greatly on IQ tests. This is despite substantial findings which show IQ to be a poor predictor of parenting capacity; • Evidence contrary to parental incompetence being disregarded; and • Inadequate legal representation eg., court proceedings not clearly explained, legal representatives not having an understanding of the issues faced by people with intellectual disability (McConnell & Llewellyn, 2002)

  14. Literature Removal of children leads to • Greif • Loss • Depression • PTSD • Having numerous children to keep one. • There is a lack of counseling supports for these parents to access and cope with these emotions .

  15. Literature Current evidence. • In the first instance it may be that appropriate support services for parents with intellectual disability are not available (McConnell, Llewellyn, & Ferronato, 2000: 4). • There is a lack of understanding about the learning capacity of people with intellectual disability given appropriate instructional methods. The project undertaken by Booth and Booth (1999) indicated that one of the main benefits of the project was its success in changing for the better the way in which parents were regarded by some practitioners. That is they were able to see their strengths and capacity in a different light. • Many courts have assumed that, as greater time and effort is required to teach skills to these parents, this requirement, relieves the state of the duty to provide any training at all Gilhool and Gran (1985: 32 in McConnell, Llewellyn, & Ferronato, 2000: 4)

  16. Literature McDonnell (2001) suggest four changes are required in relation to the child protection system • Decision makers must recognize that determining what is in a child's best interests involves interpretation and therefore requires genuine discourse. • The impact of social and environmental constraints on families need to be given due consideration. • The individual qualities and capabilities of these parents must be taken into account. • Communicative rather than system imperatives such as the need to critically reflect on one's own presuppositions, to listen with empathy and grasp the other's particularity must drive the process.

  17. Presenter Sandra Seymour Literature Reviewparents with intellectual difference

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