Partnership with social care professionals as a context for promoting self-determination among people with intellectual disabilities

Background : People with intellectual disabilities who live in residential facilities may need social support to express self determination. Relationships with social care professionals provide an important context for promoting self-determination. Adopting a socioecological perspective, our study aimed to better understand the nature of these relationships. Method : Over a period of ten months, we held 13 focus group discussions with a total of 20 participants, including both residents and staff at facilities for people with intellectual disabilities. Using transcripts of these discussions, we analysed expressions of self-determination among people with intellectual disabilities and the responses of social care professionals. Results : Our results highlight the importance of relational adjustment in fostering self-determination among people with intellectual disabilities and underline the importance of respective roles within relationships between people with intellectual disabilities and social care professionals. Conclusion : The partnership between people with intellectual disabilities and professionals seems to be the most effective type of relationship in order to support the self-determination of people with intellectual disabilities. This paper provides a fresh perspective on the role played by people with intellectual disabilities in their relationships with social care professionals. By engaging people with intellectual disabilities as partners in fostering self-determination, social care professionals can encourage social participation and feelings of empowerment. Relationships based on partnership offer people with intellectual disabilities a form of hetero-regulation that can help them overcome challenges to behaving in a fully self-determined way. However, partnership also requires changes in professional practices and attitudes

Environmental, Personal, and Relational Barriers and Facilitators to Self-Determination among Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

For people with intellectual disabilities, the potential for self-determination depends on both personal characteristics and factors related to the social environment. This study examines barriers and facilitators to self-determination among residents at facilities for people with intellectual disabilities. We held 13 focus group discussions to explore the opinions and experiences of 10 people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities and 10 social care professionals at three residential facilities in Western Switzerland. We identified environmental, personal, and relational barriers and facilitators to self-determination associated with attitudes, representations, and institutional settings. Within the social environment of people with intellectual disabilities, relationships based on trust, partnership, and collaboration appear to promote self-determined behaviours. Ideally, strategies for promoting self-determination among people with intellectual disabilities should take both personal characteristics and the social environment into account

Si Athènes était une île...

Nothing in Thucydides excludes Diodorus’ view that after Coronea in 447, the revolt spread largely into the Athenian Empire. After the peace of 446, the city renounced meddling on the mainland. The evidence for a new policy lies in the conciliatory assessment of 446/5 and Pericles’ sponsorship of a middle Long Wall. Pericles understood that it was more profitable for the Athenians to keep their sea-power than to engage in costly adventures by land. When did Pericles elaborate his policy of evacuation of Attica? The improvisation of the whole operation invites to think that this strategy, though implicit in the construction of the Long Walls, was decided just before the outbreak of the war.  

Favoriser l'apprentissage de la traversée d'un passage piéton pour des jeunes avec une déficience intellectuelle grâce à la réalité virtuelle

National audienceVirtual Reality (VR) has three main advantages: allowing safe simulations, experimenting different conditions for the same scenario, and providing the perfect replicability of the scenarios. We present a feasibility study on the use of VR and VR immersive headsets to assist young adults (10-18) with intellectual disabilities in learning new skills. We focused on the scenario of a pedestrian crossing without traffic lights, and we considered several environmental conditions (day/night, weather, kindness of drivers, etc.). Our study is not limited to young people with autism spectrum disorder but takes into account young adults with intellectual disability with an associated disorder. 15 young people participated in the study showing a very good acceptability of immersive headsets and a noticeable learning effect already after a short training session. However, a longer and more extensive study is needed to evaluate the transfer of learning to reality.La réalité virtuelle (VR) a trois avantages : simuler en toute sécurité, proposer différentes conditions pour une action identique et rejouer un scénario de manière contrôlée. Nous présentons une étude de faisabilité concernant l'utilisation de la VR (casques immersifs) pour accompagner dans l'apprentissage de nouvelles compétences des jeunes adultes (10-18) avec une déficience intellectuelle (DI). Nous nous focalisons sur le scénario d'un passage piéton, en considérant plusieurs conditions environnementales (jour/nuit, gentillesse des conducteurs, etc.). Notre étude ne se limite pas aux jeunes avec trouble du spectre de l'autisme mais prend en compte les 10-18 ans ayant une DI avec un trouble associé. 15 jeunes ont participé à l'étude en montrant une bonne acceptabilité du casque immersif et un effet d'apprentissage déjà après une courte session d'entrainement. Une étude plus étendue et de longue durée est nécessaire pour évaluer le transfert de l'apprentissage dans la réalité