Hello Alison
In attending this enquiry, you have articulated a problem that is relevant to
leisure service delivery within Rehab Units in Australia. I am glad that
there is someone who has recognised this dilemma. The biomedical
model of rehabilitation is so antithetical to the notion of leisure, yet leisure
services are compelled (by funding agreement outcomes and by the
'superior' position of therapists within a therapeutic environment - many of
whom are trained by this School) to adopt a functionalist perspective - to
'use' leisure as a therapy.
I think that leisure services in rehab settings should provide relief from
therapy. To provide programs that facilitate opportunities for self
determination; that look toward the brightest future; that attend to
emotional upheaval with the comforts of continuity and the excitement of
change; and that lift the lid off the realm of possibility rather than lock it
and become the gatekeeper. I know of several people working in this
area who feel this tug between what is expected of them and what they
feel is right. It would be fabulous to have someone or something that
recognises and articulates the conflicting paradigms and how to travel that
road.
It would be great to see your research.
> Gail Eva is wondering how rehabilitation fits into the social model. I've
> thought about this a lot and in my research considered rehabilitation to be
> grounded in the medical model and thus a disjunction occurs when any
> individual wants to straddle the two "paradigms". It makes
> interdisciplinary teamwork difficult because some members are speeaking
> different languages and are socialised into different understandings. Also
> difficult for the person undergoing rehabilitation, if anyone cared to ask.
> So I discussed it along these lines and saw it as a journey where the
> affected person travels from a medical model intervention through to a
> social and ultimately I found critical theory and emancipatory models to be
> the most constructive in analysing services and processes and arguing for
> interventions and support services in the community.
>
> As my study was about people with acquired brain injury, the literature I
> used was largely in this area but some may be useful??. Particularly
> helpful I think are narrative accounts of people's experiences of
> undergoing (surviving?) rehabilitation.
>
> Hill, H. (1999). "Traumatic brain injury: the view from the inside." Brain
> Injury 13(11): 839-844.
>
> Condeluci, A. (1992). "Brain injury rehabilitation: the need to bridge
> paradigms." Brain Injury 6(6): 543-551.
>
> Munford, R. and M. Sullivan (1997). "Social theories of disability: the
> insurrection of subjugated knowledges." Human Services: Towards Partnership
> and Support. P. O'Brien and R. Murray. Palmerston North, The Dunmore Press:
> 17-33.
>
> O'Brien, P. (1997). "Human Services: creating or alleviating disability?"
> Human Services: Towards Partnership and Support. P. O'Brien and R. Murray.
> Palmerston North, The Dunmore Press: 64-81.
>
> Best wishes
> Allison
>
> Allison Rowlands
> Department of Social Work
> University of Newcastle 2308 Australia
>
> Phone 61 2 49 21 5396 Fax 61 2 49 21 6995
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
Best regards
Laurence Bathurst
School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Sydney
P.O. Box 170
Lidcombe NSW 2141
Australia
Phone: (62 1) 9351 9509
Fax: (62 1) 9351 9166
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Please visit the School's web site at
http://www.ot.cchs.usyd.edu.au
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Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious
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