1. The Good Things in Life
Promoting positive roles for people with a disability
Facilitated by:
Chris Kuca-Thompson

2. Welcome Who am I? Breaks Workshop rules Why are you here?
Morning tea at about
Lunch at about
Finish at about 4.00

3. By the end of today, you will be able to:
Identify your own values and attitudes, and recognise those of our society
Show an understanding of the impact of social devaluation: Life experiences and Conditions
Show an understanding of Social Role Valorisation
Identify ways to assist people to establish, enhance & maintain valued social roles
Examine what our values are
Look at the results of being perceived negatively
Develop strategies to enable people to be perceived positively
Gain an understanding of Social Role Valorisation

4. What are ‘Values’?
Ask the group to define what is meant by values

5. Values
“Values” are:
Those qualities of behaviour, thought, and character that society regards as intrinsically good, having desirable results & worthy of emulation by others.
They make up our belief system. Values are the beliefs that guide our behaviour and define what is good or bad, right or wrong, correct or incorrect.
They are often influenced by our upbringing and experiences.

6. What are “Attitudes’?
Ask the group to define what is meant by ‘attitudes’

7. Attitudes “Attitudes” are:
The positive, negative or neutral feelings a person has about something
People’s biases, inclinations or tendencies that influence their response to situations, activities, people or programs
How our values are manifested in our actions and in our thoughts to others

8. What are your….
Values
Group exercise using the whiteboard – save answers for later use.
Create three columns
Questions to use:
What do you value?
What do you think is valued by society?
What roles are valued?
Our values are shaped by our upbringing, our parents, our friends, our society AND the media.

9. What are the roles you held today?
What are “roles”?
What are the roles you held today?

10. Devaluation
Occurs when a person is seen as being different and the differences are socially significant and negatively valued.
Is about what happens to a group of people when the majority or most powerful groups in society act negatively towards them.

11. Why does devaluation happen?
People see differences as threatening to them or the people they love
A lack of information or education about differences makes people wary and unsure of how to act
The strong desire for people to belong to the most popular, most powerful and most valued group

12. How has society reacted?
The history of disability is varied,
The last 150 years has seen some dramatic changes in services to people with a disability
People with a disability were devalued throughout history and this continues today.
Read out the information on the history of disability services.

13. Morning Tea

14. Impact of social devaluation
There are consequences of being devalued
People can experience rejection and loss of control over their lives
Devaluation can affect anyone
Some devalued people often do not have the resources to gain value
They are at risk of further devaluation

15. There are 21 Impacts of social devaluation: Life Experiences and Conditions
A physical impairment }
Functional impairment }
Relegated to a low social status
Rejection
May be cast into one of the 6 historical deviancy roles:
Non-human
Menace
Object of ridicule
Object of pity
Burden of charity
Eternal child or Holy Innocent
Sick/diseased
Can lead to:
Of the 21 identified wounds that can be inflicted on someone, remember – anyone can be wounded but devalued people experience more wounds and are vulnerable to further wounding.
The first 8 wounds relate to rejection
The second 13 relate to loss of control
Go thru each of them expanding on some of the less obvious ones such as historical deviancy roles and segregation/congregation as they relate a lot to image
Ask group to give a suggestion as to what each of the 21 mean- briefly

16. Symbolic stigmatising
Suspected of having multiple deviances
Segregation or congregation
These 8 relate to
REJECTION
The next 13 relate to
LOSS OF CONTROL

17. Loss of control Spiritual poverty Life wasting Loss of control
Brutalisation and death making
Source of anguish to loved ones
Personal insecurity
Resentment and hatred of privileged citizens
Loss of control
Discontinuity with physical environment
Relationship discontinuity
Substitute free relationships for paid ones
De-individualisation
Material poverty
Impoverished experiences
Discuss meaning of:
Relationship discontinuity
Free for paid relationships
Poverty – material, experiences, spiritual
Life wasting

18. At risk of further life impacts.

19. Lunch

20. Social Role Valorisation
SRV
This afternoon we are going to look at what SRV is and how it applies to your work, and life.
I know afternoon, and after lunch, is not the best time to look at this topic but I will try to keep you awake.
Review of the morning session: What are values? (things we strive for, or want for us and others)
What do we value? (health, wealth, money, status, job, car, house, friends, family)
What is devaluation? (to be treated negatively by society and others because of a persons perceived lack of value)
What are the effects of devaluation? (wounding – list off some of them)

21. Renamed Social Role Valorization because:
“the most explicit and highest goal of normalisation must be the creation, support and defence of valued social roles for people who are at risk of social devaluation. If a person’s social role were a societally valued one, then other desirable things would be accorded to that person almost automatically, at least within the resources and norms of his/her society.”
(Wolfensberger, 1983 Dec, Mental Retardation 21(6) p Social Role Valorisation: A Proposed New Term for the Principle of Normalization.)

22. There are several themes that run through SRV.
These themes help us to understand devaluation and also to understand ways to overcome devaluation.

23. The Themes of SRV Unconsciousness Social imagery
Expectancy & mind sets
Competency & the developmental model
Effectiveness of services & interventions
Relationships between people
Imitation and modeling
Integration and participation
Positive compensation
Group to feedback examples of each of them

24. Unconsciousness The things that we do and say without thinking about
Think about movies mentioned earlier, the historical treatment towards people with a disability

25. How are we influenced? Magazines Doesn’t look tubby to me
Unconsciously contributing to the value of health, fitness – paper based media reinforces this

26. Newspapers Not a health department crisis??
Terminology used also contributes

27. Popular Movies People with a disability often play the “bad” guy
Hook, Nightmare on Elm St., The Fugitive, the bad guys in Batman,
People with a disability often play the person we laugh at
Mr. Magoo, Dumb & Dumber, Forrest Gump
Any others???
Even visual media

29. 2. Social Imagery
Symbols and images that are attached to people who are devalued that influence expectations about them and their value

30. Which man is portrayed in a more positive way?

31. 3. Expectancy & mind sets “People are judged by the company they keep”
“Self Fulfilling Prophecy”
Comparison of the expectations on someone attending a mainstream classroom as compared to a segregated classroom at an Education Support Unit.
Pygmalion in the classroom

32. Person displays functional impairment
Person does not have opportunities for development.
No or few opportunities for growth & development provided
Observers have low expectation and make few demands
Stereotypes & prejudices exist about what they can do or be.
Growth & development impaired

33. 4. Competency & developmental model
Historically, people with a disability were not expected to change, learn and adapt
Developmental model believes all people are able to change, learn and adapt
Learning from experience

34. 5. Services and interventions
Is the service:
Relevant
Potent
Coherent
Do they focus on the individual and are they flexible to meet their needs as intensely as possible?

35. 6. Relationships Relationships support us and can protect us from harm
Social identity
Consider your current circle of friends, how different would it be if they were paid to spend time with you? And for 8 hours at a time?
Jaime Oliver – high value attachment, students have low value attachment- their value has increased by being associated with him

36. 7. Imitation and modeling
VERY powerful
It is both conscious and unconscious
Leading by example
People watch what you do, how you interact, how you speak to others (verbally and non-verbally)

37. 8. Integration & participation
Improves competencies, status
Participation within the community, as compared to along side it, can improve a persons value, change community attitudes, create freely given relationships, and develop competencies.

38. 9. Positive Compensation
Heightened vulnerability
Impact of devaluation has a much greater impact on people who are devalued
Limited, or no, resources to cope with affects of devaluation
Extra effort to find positive attributes that outweigh the negative
Bending over backwards

39. Heightened vulnerability

40. 7 strategies to creating, supporting and defending valued social roles
Maintain
Acquire
Re-valorise
Image and Competence
Role Management
Act at different levels
Use the Tom case study to group work these seven strategies

41. Group work
Tom has an intellectual disability and limited communication. He is 43 years old.
He does not have any contact with his family.
Tom has lived in a residential service since he was 4 years old and currently lives with 4 other men of a similar age.
Tom is unemployed and currently does not participate in any alternatives to employment.
His group home has been short staffed for the last 3 months so Tom has limited opportunities to go out.
Tom’s favorite hobby since he was little is playing on
the see saw, now he just watches the other
children.
What roles does Tom have?
What ‘bricks’ does Tom have?
How could we remove some of the ‘bricks’?
How could we add valued roles to Tom’s life?

42. Summary Values and Attitudes are part of society.
Some people or groups are valued more highly than others.
Negative things can happen to people who are not valued (devalued).
Historically, people with disabilities have been devalued.
As workers, you can assist people to acquire and maintain valued roles.

43. Valued roles assist in creating positive perceptions of people who are seen as devalued. This can change attitudes.
Workers need to ‘bend over backwards’ to promote value in people who are devalued.
You can do this by:
Getting to know the person
Ensuring positive imagery
Showing respect
Being very aware of what you are portraying
unconsciously.

44. Next time you are at work, have a think about:
The appearance of the people you work with,
How they are spoken to in the home, in the community, in their place of employment,
The appearance of the staff,
Where the people you work with go to recreate, to shop and to socialise,
How they may be perceived by their neighbours and their community,
Is there a distinction between staff and service users?,
The terminology or jargon do you use,
The terminology or jargon to other staff use,
The appearance of their home or place of employment?

45. Objectives we started with
By the end of today you should be able to:
Identify your own values and attitudes, and recognise those of our society
Show an understanding of the impact of social devaluation: Life experiences and Conditions
Show an understanding of Social Role Valorisation
Identify ways to assist people to establish, enhance & maintain valued social roles