What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?: a reflection of undertaking a PhD Sally Rees

Undertaking a PhD: the beginning, the middle and the end…….  Why a PhD?  Role of supervisors.  Potential areas of study.  Research proposal.  Commitment.  Maintaining a reflective journal.  Time management.  Enjoy the experience. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)? The beginning

 Balancing work/PhD/home life.  Set goals, with the an eye on the end in sight.  Times of doubt, frustration and avoidance.  Resilience and flexibility.  Enjoy each stage. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)? The middle

 Present your work as much as you can.  Remember it is your work: take ownership.  Seeing the Thesis take shape.  The Viva…. and the end…. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?

Overall aim and objectives. Aim: To understand: The transition process, the contextual relationships, external and internal mechanisms facilitated by the intervention of a Transition Key Worker and, how they may help to create opportunities to achieve good outcomes for disabled young people moving into adulthood. Objectives:  Understand what young people, their parents and those working with them considered to be the key elements of achieving successful transition into adulthood.  Identify and understand through three types of evidence the role of a Transition Protocol/Pathway played in achieving better outcomes.  Understand the experiences of young people, their parents and professionals by exploring the Transition Key Worker role as an intervention.  I drew my own experiential perspectives both personally and professionally.  Reflexivity played an important role. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?

Contribution  Using Realist methodology highlighted the transition process was a highly complex constructed programme.  Explained the context mechanisms and outcome(s) configuration of the transition process.  Intervention of the Transition Key Worker important as the activator of the mechanisms.  Identified the lack of effectiveness of Transition Protocols/Pathways: contributed to the complexity.  The transition process is not a linear phenomenon.  The critical element of how to plan well with young people largely missing.  The issue of the past was not represented in the literature. There was as a lack of acknowledgment amongst professionals, including Transition Key Workers and Site Leads as to the impact the past.  Early and progressive contact and intervention likely to be positive indicator of achieving good outcomes through transition into adulthood or where past issues have been dealt with. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?

Conclusions  Transition is individualistic, but the process is corporate, not malleable to allow flexibility and less likely to be fully focused on individual needs.  Focus on the process itself, rather than on the mechanisms and their importance.  Continued to be described educationally: school into college.  Little evidence on the effectiveness of a protocol/pathway; especially for the end recipient.  Reality for young people, parents and practitioners in their use, understanding and impact of a protocol/pathway maybe somewhat different.  Stories of similar poor experiences have not changed and linger.  Poor pre-transition experiences a critical impeding factor which is difficult to ameliorate.  The initial conceptual framework did not fully explain how the transition works for whom and in what circumstances and did not take into account the impact of the past on the components of the 4 P’s. What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?

The ‘Insider’ perspective  Parental and professional experience and knowledge an important aspect of the research.  Position can be defined as an individual within a particular social group (parent of a disabled young person).  Provided an unique dimension to the research.  Added value by exposing my personal and professional experiential understanding.  Awareness of my own past experiences and the impact not previously delved into in depth.  A personal learning experience.  Enjoy the experience…... What makes a successful transition into adulthood for disabled young people (14-25 years of age)?