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Two Worlds Collide

Two Worlds Collide. Fiona Redgrove Tascare Society for Children. Two Worlds Collide. Setting the scene. What is an adult?. “For the past couple of years I was doing the party thing - going out a lot. But now I've turned 25, I feel I'm an adult !” Paris Hilton

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Two Worlds Collide

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  1. Two Worlds Collide Fiona Redgrove Tascare Society for Children

  2. Two Worlds Collide Setting the scene

  3. What is an adult? • “For the past couple of years I was doing the party thing - going out a lot. But now I've turned 25, I feel I'm an adult!” • Paris Hilton • A person with a disability who turns 18 (A Client!) • the start of Adult Services for people with a disability • Clienthood ≠ Adulthood

  4. Emma was asked to relocate to an Adult Respite Centre when she turned 18, despite assurances that she could continue to stay with a children’s respite services until a permanent Group Home was available. • Emma’s mother walked into the adult centre and observed a ‘lot of middle-aged men’. To her, Emma was still a teenager!

  5. What do parents believe?

  6. Definitions of Adulthood • Legal = reaching a chronological age: their eighteenth birthday • Biological = full growth to a point of reproduction ( a stage often denied to people with ID) • Social scientists = a series of transitions, rather than as a function of chronological age • Default position = no longer a child, but not yet part of the aged community – not guaranteed adult status. (Priestley 2003)

  7. When do young people with Intellectual Disabilities become adults? • The end of schooling may be considered to represent transition to adulthood. • Transition to post-school options may occur at 18 (or younger) • Around 18, transition from school, children’s therapy services and respite services • Transition out of school not necessarily synchronous with transition into adulthood

  8. Maxine’s Mum’s dilemma • I have had Maxine taken off the electoral role, because I wouldn’t like to think that someone else, her support staff, could use her vote to support their own preferred candidates. She might like to get interested in politics, but I don’t yet trust those who work there.

  9. Social Construction of Adulthood • Adolescence involves some degree of social construction, so we should consider Arnett’s construct of emerging adulthood. • Becoming an adult should be recognised as a series of transitions, not an event that occurs on 18th birthday.

  10. Concept of Emerging Adulthood(Arnett, 1995) • No longer an adolescent • Has yet to meet culturally recognised markers of full adult status • A time in which progress is made towards independence – usually between 18 and 25 years, but can extend to 30 years and beyond!

  11. Young Adulthood • Young Adulthood, as distinct from ‘emerging adulthood’ stage, is recognised by: • sense of autonomy, • financial independence, • self control • personal responsibility

  12. But what of young people with Intellectual Disabilities? “Emerging adulthood” stage is often denied to people with intellectual disabilities • (Osgood, 2004) Instead, young adulthood considered as completion of schooling, or at age 18.

  13. What could such a stage offer people with intellectual Disabilities? • A period of ‘person-family’-focussed transition, • Parents as Partners in Transition – rather than Enemy Number One! • Normative exploration of opportunities by promoting • Relative independence from social roles and from normative expectations • Many different directions remaining possible • Little about the future being decided for certain

  14. “Adulthood is dependent on having the capacity for “self” (cognitive) defence. Molly is not capable of such defence of her own self – she is vulnerable. Her rights, then, should not simply be measured by legalities, but by ethics.” …. “adulthood is neither a suitable nor genuine aim for Molly, and is distressing for our family”

  15. “I suppose finishing his schooling probably defines their passage to adulthood, but that’s quite a sad time in a way, because you know they have been nurtured along the way, to a certain extent in their schooling, and while they might be physically old enough to leave school, they have got so much more to learn. You want them to stay in an environment where they would have the chance to learn new skills”

  16. So – where to from here! • Is there a more “right’ definition? • How can we protect rights without destroying relationships? • How can families and services communicate more effectively in ways that serve to benefit, and not to potentially harm, young people with ID? • How can systems provide a more normative life course for young people with ID during their transition to adulthood, allowing this to occur over time, and not because of moments in time?

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