I was also excited to read Mark Sherry's post, particularly as he is an
expert on traumatic brain injury as opposed to one of us who work or
research in the area without personal experience. I have just finished my
phd on circles of support and community integration after acquired brain
injury and wondered often about how the social model of disability included
people with brain injury, as it seemed to me to be biased towards physical
disability. Issues to do with brain injury are physical, sensory,
cognitive, psychological, emotional and social (and spiritual/
existential?). The cognitive changes interact with the emotional responses
as well as effects on personality and identity. The capacity to make sense
of all these changes can be impaired by the very same cognitive changes.
When communication difficulties are added, it is even more complex. So I
don't believe that we've got to the bottom of it.
In the end I decided that the social model way of thinking is very helpful,
especially in trying to understand and articulate the issues that arise
after the intensive rehabilitation phase is over and the person and family
are working out how to live the rest of one's life. Also it has helped me
in trying to communicate across the paradigm divide between me, a social
worker/community worker from an interpretivist/ critical theory paradigm,
and medicos, neuropsychologists and speech therapists, from a medical
model, positivist paradigm. I concluded that a critical theory perspective
was the appropriate way to conceptualise the <problem> of community
integration after brain injury, as well as the framework to inform
intervention and research, which must be participatory and emancipatory. To
me, this is in accord with a social model way of understanding disability.
At a recent research forum on brain injury here in NSW there was interest
from the steel edged positivists in these broader, humanist ways of
thinking and acting, when these were clearly articulated in a non
threatening way.
So hope that was comprehensible?, and I welcome lots more discussion about
brain injury - thanks Mark and Rob Outram.
Allison Rowlands
Department of Social Work
University of Newcastle NSW 2308
AUSTRALIA
Phone 61 2 4921 5396
Fax 61 2 4921 6995
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