Social Inclusion (social + inclusion)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


At Hospitality's Threshold: From Social Inclusion to Exilic Education

CURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
Edith Doron
Museums have strived to be valued resources in an increasingly diverse society. In aspiring to broaden their audience base, their work has shifted from developing educational policies that are "object-centered" to those that are "community-centered" , a change of strategy affecting everything from programs to exhibit design. Children's museums , distinct (if not marginalized) from the serious work of the traditional art or ethnographic or natural history museum , know and indeed say in their very name , "children's museum" , that they are for the sake of someone and not about something. They have always already been attuned to the visitor at the threshold. [source]


The EU and Social Inclusion: Facing the Challenges , By E. Marlier, A.B. Atkinson, B. Cantillon and B. Nolan

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 2 2007
ENKELEIDA TAHIRAJ
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Social Inclusion: A Philosophical Anthropology1

POLITICS, Issue 2 2005
Dermot O'Reilly
In this article the theoretical conflations associated with the concept of social exclusion are disaggregated into a number of competing versions in terms of their social scientific and normative bases. The types of policy, analysis and critique that are engendered by these conceptions of exclusion are examined for their underlying social scientific methodology. The disjunction between positive, interpretative and critical approaches to social exclusion can only satisfactorily be broached by a methodology utilising a critical realist framework. This framework requires the integration of a theorised dialectical linkage between inclusion and exclusion. The necessary conceptual prerequisites are outlined for modelling inclusion and exclusion in a substantive, contextually sensitive manner that enables critical assessment. [source]


Policies to Reconcile Labor Force Participation and Childbearing in the European Union

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 2 2006
Article first published online: 26 JUN 200
A recently published report commissioned by the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Commission reviews "reconciliation" policies in 30 European countries. Such policies are defined by the report in its title as measures that foster "reconciliation of work and private life" or, more elaborately in the body of the report, as "policies that directly support the combination of professional, family and private life." In this context work means gainful employment, while private life in effect means childbearing. The countries covered are those of the EU 25, two candidate countries (Bulgaria and Romania), and three countries that are part of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein). The report, not formally endorsed by the Commission, was prepared by the EU Expert Group on Gender, Social Inclusion and Employment. Each of the 30 countries was represented by at least one expert. The 96-page report identifies four types of reconciliation policies: childcare services, leave facilities, flexible working-time arrangements, and financial allowances. Descriptions of these policies from the Executive Summary are reproduced below. The full report is accessible at «http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/FileCache/PUBPDF/KE6905828ENC/KE6905828ENC_002.pdf». Although the report makes passing reference to below-replacement fertility in the EU member countries, its focus is clearly directed to measures that could increase the rate of employment, especially female employment. According to the EU's "Lisbon targets" set in 2000, the female employment rate in the EU should be raised to 60 percent of the working-age population by 2010. Based on data for 2003, only eight EU countries have met or exceeded this target. Childbearing is seen as in part responsible for the shortfall. Reconciliation policies could make the Lisbon target for female employment more easily achievable and "especially stimulate full time participation." Furthermore, the report suggests, such policies, as a byproduct, could also enhance fertility. Financial allowances, paid directly to families with children, the fourth type of policy discussed by the report, include measures reminiscent of the main thrust of the newly announced proposals for increasing fertility in Russia (see the preceding Documents item in this issue). The report, however, makes no reference to differentiation by parity, a distinctive mark of pronatalist intent. Indeed, it specifies that "family-based tax concessions and family allowances are not part of the reconciliation policy per se," noting, with an apparent element of disapproval, that such provisions "are often based on (and may reinforce the notion of) a traditional breadwinner model by reducing the incentive to work for both spouses." [source]


Social Exclusion and European Policy: Globalization and Welfare Social Indicators: The EU and Social Inclusion.

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 488 2003
Charles Figuieres
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Learning Disability and Social Inclusion: A review of Current Policy and Practice (Policy and Practice in Health and Social Care Series, No. 7)

BRITISH JOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES, Issue 1 2009
Sue DumbletonArticle first published online: 23 FEB 200
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Community Telecentres in Brazil: The Porto Alegre Experience: Toward Digital and Social Inclusion

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2004
Sônia Elisa Caregnato
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Setting the agenda: social inclusion, children and young people

CHILDREN & SOCIETY, Issue 2 2004
ESRC Seminar Series Participants
This paper was prepared collectively by participants of the third seminar in a series with the title Challenging ,Social Inclusion': Perspectives for and from Children and Young People. Three 3-day seminars took place at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling in 2002,3 attended by academics, professionals from voluntary sector children's agencies, young people, representatives from central government and postgraduate students. Funding was provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Children's Society. [source]


Social inclusion in research: reflecting on a research project involving young mothers in care

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2005
Lena Dominelli
This article considers social inclusion in research by reflecting upon a project involving young mothers in care, which used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to theorise their situations and emphasise their voice, a key issue in inclusion, and yielded mixed outcomes. GTM dealt poorly with inclusivity and was supplemented by a feminist orientation. This also failed young mothers. They were included by sitting on an Advisory Com-mittee, being paid an honorarium and assisting in disseminating results. These efforts were unable to overturn power dynamics that privileged researchers' ownership of the findings, and enabled them to benefit from doing research and their rela-tionship with funders. The attempt to change policies and practices that served clients badly was thwarted by an election that brought in a régime with different goals. The young women authored their own stories and spoke authoritatively of their experiences. However, inclusion was not fully secured in and by the research process. Their positioning as research subjects curtailed their potential in this regard. [source]


Immigration to the Land of Redistribution

ECONOMICA, Issue 308 2010
TITO BOERI
Negative perceptions about migrants in Europe are driven by concerns that foreigners abuse welfare. Paradoxically, instruments of social inclusion are becoming weapons of mass exclusion. We compare evidence on welfare access and the net fiscal position of migrants with perceptions based on a largely unexploited database (EU-SILC). We find no evidence that legal migrants, notably skilled migrants, are net recipients of transfers from the state. However, there is evidence of ,residual dependency' on non-contributory transfers and self-selection of unskilled migrants in the countries with the most generous welfare states. Alternative strategies to unbundle migration from welfare access are discussed. [source]


Is the Open Method of Coordination Appropriate for Organising Activities at European Level in Sensitive Policy Areas?

EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002
Caroline de la Porte
This article addresses the question of the relevance of the most recent soft policy instrument of the EU, the open method of coordination (OMC), for organising actions at European level in politically sensitive areas. In addition to describing its origins and operational principles, we will compare its application to the areas of employment and social inclusion. Two hypotheses make up the structure of the text. The first is that the discourses produced in the framework of OMC in the areas of employment and social inclusion are broad enough to cater to the different welfare models, but that the changes to be made by the Member States to be in line with the European discourses differ considerably, depending on their welfare state family and their initial situation. The second is that the form of OMC is variable, depending on policy area. Our conclusions confirm both of these hypotheses. [source]


MAKING SUSTAINABLE CREATIVE/CULTURAL SPACE IN SHANGHAI AND SINGAPORE,

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
LILY KONG
ABSTRACT. Shanghai and Singapore are two economically vibrant Asian cities that have recently adopted creative/cultural economy strategies. In this article I examine new spatial expressions of cultural and economic interests in the two cities: state-vaunted cultural edifices and organically evolved cultural spaces. I discuss the simultaneous precariousness and sustainability of these spaces, focusing on Shanghai's Grand Theatre and Moganshan Lu and on Singapore's Esplanade,Theatres by the Bay and Wessex Estate. Their cultural sustainability is understood as their ability to support the development of indigenous content and local idioms in artistic work. Their social sustainability is examined in terms of the social inclusion and community bonds they engender; environmental sustainability refers to the articulation with the language of existing urban forms and the preservation of or improvements to the landscape. Although both Shanghai and Singapore demonstrate simultaneous precariousness and sustainability, Singapore's city-state status places greater pressure on it to ensure sustainability than does Shanghai, within a much larger China in which Beijing serves as the cultural hearth while Shanghai remains essentially a commercial center. [source]


Investigating the nature of formal social support provision for young mothers in a city in the North West of England

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 6 2006
Angela McLeod BA (Hons) MPH
Abstract Young mothers often require support to remain socially ,included' after becoming pregnant and this, in its turn, could protect their health. In this context, new policy initiatives aimed at tackling social exclusion, such as those implemented under the National Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, could be working to build social support mechanisms. The present paper addresses the issue of whether statutory services do in fact deliver ,social inclusion', through the provision of appropriate social support for young mothers. Data are drawn from semistructured interviews with service providers from a variety of different settings. The questionnaire was structured around an established model of social support, developed by M. Barrera, called the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviours. The study took place in a deprived inner city in North West England. Eleven participants were interviewed from seven separate organisations. The findings indicate that there were well-developed referral systems between services, with services adopting a social model of health. Much informational and emotional support was provided. What was less clear is how services are enabling social support to be developed amongst peer groups accessing the services particularly at community level. It is questionable to what extent services are able to foster the development of social support through social activities and support groups, and even whether it is appropriate to expect them to do so. In some sense, services go some way to delivering social inclusion, in that they are providing advice about income, housing and other opportunities. However, services appear to be missing an opportunity to foster social inclusion through the lack of development of supportive networks amongst groups of peers, which may have implications for the health of young mothers. [source]


Old Age Protection in the Context of Rural Development

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 4 2010
Xiaomei Pei
This study examines the potential of rural communities for generating and allocating resources for rural old age support in the context of decreasing family resources and inadequate state provision. In-depth interviews with elderly people, their families, community leaders and government officials of three villages, respectively located in three provinces provide us with clear evidence on existing local institutional arrangements for rural old age support and the role of both government and community in organising such programmes. They confirm the potential of rural communities to generate and distribute resources for old age support, offering community opportunities for social inclusion through fair flows of resources to promote social harmony and stability, and accelerating economic growth. The findings of the study imply that there is a need for policymakers to link the state effort for old age protection to rural community development, and encourage grassroots efforts in old age support. [source]


The renewed Lisbon Strategy and social exclusion policy

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2007
Martina Dieckhoff
ABSTRACT In the light of its manifest mid-term failure to make progress towards its key objectives, the EU introduced in 2005 a major ,relaunch' of its Lisbon Strategy for economic, employment and social development. The core aspect of this was ,prioritisation', involving an increased focus on growth and jobs. This raised the issue of whether the pursuit of greater competitiveness would lead to a downgrading of the importance of the original social objectives of the programme. In its focal concern on the fight against social exclusion, the EU's strategy involved both employment and social objectives. These emphasised in particular the creation not only of more but of ,better jobs' and the pursuit of actions to reinforce ,social inclusion' and ,social cohesion'. This article considers whether a significant shift did occur in policy emphasis and the implications of the Lisbon reform for progress in reducing the risks of social exclusion. It reviews first the basic changes in the formulation of the strategy and then examines in turn the effectiveness of its policy initiatives with respect to employment, the quality of work and social inclusion. [source]


The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: The Significance of the Creative Industries

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001
Mark Blythe
This paper reflects on the social and political significance of the new classification of the ,creative industries'. The new aggregate expands previous classifications of the arts and cultural industries and produces figures which suggest that these sectors are increasingly vital elements of the UK economy. It is argued that these statistics on the creative industries are, to an extent, misleading. The paper considers some of the implications of the recent and continuing advances in technologies of digital reproduction and distribution. The importance of the creative industries to Arts and Design education is placed within the context of the emphasis on vocationalism by successive UK governments. It is suggested that while the new aggregate may be useful in terms of certain kinds of promotion, the category should be recognised as arbitrary and politically motivated. Finally, the paper examines the notion that the creative industries might be harnessed to achieve social inclusion and urban re-generation and reflects on some of the social costs of such sectors. [source]


,Seen but not heard', young people's experience of advocacy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2005
Jane Boylan
This article draws on two pieces of empirical research undertaken in England with young people in public care. The research examined young people's experiences of a range of advocacy services, and the extent to which the involvement of an advocate facilitated young people's voices being heard in decision-making. The research responded to contemporary concerns about children's participatory rights, citizenship and social inclusion, set in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article examines the strengths and limitations of advocacy for young people in public care and compares the different types of advocacy services that are available to young people and considers the extent to which adult perceptions of childhood and youth frame the services that are offered. It provides a comparison of the outcomes for young people who have had an advocate and those who have not. The concluding discussion argues that young people in public care feel excluded and marginalised from decision-making processes, and that advocacy has a pivotal role to play in placing at centre stage the wishes and feelings of young people. [source]


Social inclusion in research: reflecting on a research project involving young mothers in care

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2005
Lena Dominelli
This article considers social inclusion in research by reflecting upon a project involving young mothers in care, which used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to theorise their situations and emphasise their voice, a key issue in inclusion, and yielded mixed outcomes. GTM dealt poorly with inclusivity and was supplemented by a feminist orientation. This also failed young mothers. They were included by sitting on an Advisory Com-mittee, being paid an honorarium and assisting in disseminating results. These efforts were unable to overturn power dynamics that privileged researchers' ownership of the findings, and enabled them to benefit from doing research and their rela-tionship with funders. The attempt to change policies and practices that served clients badly was thwarted by an election that brought in a régime with different goals. The young women authored their own stories and spoke authoritatively of their experiences. However, inclusion was not fully secured in and by the research process. Their positioning as research subjects curtailed their potential in this regard. [source]


Growing cohesive communities one favour at a time: social exclusion, active citizenship and time banks

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2003
Gill Seyfang
Community currencies have been put forward as a grassroots tool to promote social inclusion through community self-help and active citizenship. ,Time banks' are a new form of community currency in the UK which are receiving government support. Time credits are earned for each hour of voluntary service given, and can be used to purchase services from other members in return. This article discusses new findings from the first national study of time banks to assess their impacts and potential. An evaluative framework is employed which describes social inclusion as comprising effective economic, social and political citizenship rights. Evidence is presented from a national survey of time banks and from an in-depth case study of Rushey Green Time Bank, situated in a health care setting in a deprived area of south London. Time banks are found to be successful at engaging socially excluded and vulnerable groups of people in community activities , many for the first time , boosting their confidence, social networks, skills and well-being, as well as opening up possibilities for challenging inequitable social institutions and creating spaces where different values prevail. Their potential as tools for democratic renewal, promoting civic engagement and active citizenship is discussed. Les ,unités de valeur' communautaires sont considérées comme des outils essentiels pour encourager l'inclusion sociale grâce à une entraide communautaire et une citoyenneté active. Les ,banques de temps' constituent une nouvelle forme d'unité de valeur communautaire au Royaume-Uni, avec le soutien du gouvernement. Des crédits de temps, acquis pour chaque heure de bénévolat donnée, peuvent servir à acheter en retour des prestations auprès d'autres membres. L'article examine les résultats de la première étude nationale sur les banques de temps afin d'en estimer l'impact et le potentiel. Un cadre d'évaluation est appliqué, définissant l'inclusion sociale comme un ensemble de droits effectifs, à la fois économiques, sociaux et de citoyenneté politique. Des indications sont fournies par une enquête nationale sur les banques de temps, et par une étude de cas approfondie de la Rushey Green Time Bank portant sur les services médicaux dans une zone défavorisée du sud de Londres. Ces banques réussissent à impliquer dans des activités communautaires des groupes de population , souvent pour la première fois , socialement exclus et vulnérables, renforçant leurs réseaux sociaux, confiance, compétences et bien-être, tout en leur offrant des possibilités d'affronter des institutions sociales inéquitables et en créant des espaces où prévalent d'autres valeurs. L'article traite aussi du potentiel des banques de temps comme outil de renouveau démocratique, stimulant engagement civique et citoyenneté active. [source]


A decision support methodology for increasing public investment efficiency in Brazilian agrarian reform

INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009
Leonardo Melgarejo
Abstract The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Program has subsidized the settlement of over 425,000 destitute families on previously unproductive land in what has become a very effective vehicle for social inclusion and productivity growth for those settlers who reach the final stage of the process and receive definitive title to the land. Unfortunately, there is a large difference in efficiency and productivity between more and less successful settlements , fewer than 10% of relocated families have received title and over 25% of them have abandoned the property to which they were assigned. This paper presents a decision support methodology for increasing the efficiency of public investments in agrarian reform that includes a data envelopment analysis model and a mechanism for building consensus among the various constituencies of the agrarian reform process, who not infrequently have conflicting objectives. The OR model described herein uses principal component analysis and data envelopment analysis to identify the most important success factors for relocated families leading to an increase in the chance of both autonomous integration with the market economy and definitive entitlement by these displaced families as well as an increase in the predictability of future settlement success. The model was implemented successfully in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, and was partially used in a pilot project for the countrywide agrarian reform accelerated consolidation program. [source]


EU Social Policy after Lisbon,

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 3 2006
MARY DALY
This article focuses on the Lisbon strategy, the latest ,moment' in EU social policy. Following developments up to the end of 2005, it seeks to assess the significance of the poverty/social inclusion open method of co-ordination in terms of what it indicates about the EU's engagement with social policy. The article proceeds by interrogating a series of arguments for and against significance. It considers in turn different interpretations of: the functions and rationale of the EU policy process on poverty and social inclusion; the application and unfolding of the method of open co-ordination in this particular policy domain; and the politics underlying it. In elaborating the sui generis aspects of EU social policy especially as associated with Lisbon, the analysis discusses the possibility that social policy is developing its own dynamic at EU level. However, although significant elements can be identified, the relative fragility of poverty and social exclusion within the EU policy portfolio is highlighted. It is there but lacks firm foundation. [source]


Legitimately Diverse, yet Comparable: On Synthesizing Social Inclusion Performance in the EU,

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 5 2004
LAURENS CHERCHYE
The open method of co-ordination (OMC) intends to enhance EU Member States'performance on social inclusion. In this context a set of commonly agreed performance indicators plays an important role. While the communicative power of a synthetic indicator has been recognized, several objections have been raised against such a construction. In this article, we argue that a set of separate indicators can in principle be combined into a meaningful synthetic performance index without giving up on the notion of subsidiarity, and without fundamentally impairing the peer pressure incentives that constitute an important rationale for OMC. We complement the presentation of the conceptual framework with a number of empirical applications, thereby indicating how the basic method may be instrumental for policy benchmarking practice. [source]


Person-Centred Planning in its Strategic Context: Reframing the Mansell/Beadle-Brown Critique

JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 1 2004
David Towell
Valuing People, the English national strategy launched in 2001 is founded on the twin principles of self-determination and social inclusion. It promotes a vision of people with intellectual disabilities in the mainstream of life. To achieve this goal, it seeks to integrate a wide variety of elements, in which person-centred planning (PCP) is one. The Mansell and Beadle-Brown review makes many interesting points about PCP in this context. We reframe their critique in three main ways: by more fully recognising the extent to which PCP is an intrinsic element of the national strategy, helping to operationalise its core principles; by crediting the ways in which individual planning and action are intended to become part of one continuous process; and by showing how the strategy addresses the challenge of scale by prioritising quality rather than quantity in implementing PCP, with the aspiration of creating a virtuous spiral of positive change. [source]


Behavioral and self-reported aggression as a function of domain-specific self-esteem

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 1 2006
Gregory D. Webster
Abstract On the basis of a domain-specific theory of self-esteem, it was hypothesized that functionally distinct domains of self-esteem would predict aggression differentially. Participants completed self-report measures of self-perceived superiority, mate value, social inclusion, and global self-esteem, as well as of aggression. Self-assessed mate value emerged as a reliable, positive predictor, and social inclusion as a reliable inverse predictor, of self-reported hostility and aggression. In a subsequent laboratory experiment, in which participants had an opportunity to aggress against the source of positive or negative feedback about a personal essay that they had written, mate value again predicted increased aggression, whereas global self-esteem predicted decreased aggression. These main effects were moderated by the feedback manipulation, such that their respective simple effects were only present among participants that received negative feedback. Aggr. Behav. 00:1,11, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


The role of support staff in promoting the social inclusion of persons with an intellectual disability

JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 8 2010
R. McConkey
Abstract Background Past studies have found that people supported in more individualised housing options tend to have levels of community participation and wider social networks than those in other accommodation options. Yet, the contribution of support staff in facilitating social inclusion has received relatively scant attention. Methods In all 245 staff working in either supported living schemes, or shared residential and group homes, or in day centres completed a written questionnaire in which they rated in terms of priority to their job, 16 tasks that were supportive of social inclusion and a further 16 tasks that related to the care of the person they supported. In addition staff identified those tasks that they considered were not appropriate to their job. Results Across all three service settings, staff rated more care tasks as having higher priority than they did the social inclusion tasks. However, staff in supported living schemes rated more social inclusion tasks as having high priority than did staff in the other two service settings. Equally the staff who were most inclined to rate social inclusion tasks as not being applicable to their job were those working day centres; female rather than male staff, those in front-line staff rather than senior staff, and those in part-time or relief positions rather than full-time posts. However, within each service settings, there were wide variations in how staff rated the social inclusion tasks. Conclusions Staff working in more individualised support arrangements tend to give greater priority to promoting social inclusion although this can vary widely both across and within staff teams. Nonetheless, staff gave greater priority to care tasks especially in congregated service settings. Service managers may need to give more emphasis to social inclusion tasks and provide the leadership, training and resources to facilitate support staff to re-assess their priorities. [source]


Disproportionate Sacrifices: Ricoeur's Theories of Justice and the Widening Participation Agenda for Higher Education in the UK

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 3 2006
MICHAEL WATTS
Ricoeur's theories of justice are used here to examine the injustice of the utilitarian drive to widen participation in higher education in the UK and, in particular, the attribution of low aspirations and achievements to those young people who do not participate in higher education. Government policy is considered through Ricoeur's theory of the just state; and his ,new commandment' is used to consider the disproportionate sacrifice required of these young people if they are to enter higher education. Despite its specific focus, the paper's arguments are relevant to all policies that conflate social inclusion and economic development. [source]


Survey Outcomes and Cross-National Comparisons of Quality of Life With Respect to People With Intellectual Disabilities in Taiwan

JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 1 2009
Yueh-Ching Chou
Abstract As studies of the quality of life (QoL) of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Taiwan have been limited, the authors assessed how Taiwanese adults with ID experience their QoL, including comparisons with their counterparts in other countries. The study involved administering the Cross-Cultural QoL Indicators Survey and the Quality of Life Questionnaire in 2004 and 2005 to a total of 481 adults with ID who either were living with their family or residing within a facility. Results indicated that the domain of "social inclusion" was the lowest for both adults using residential services or living with family. In addition, Taiwanese residents with ID have lower levels of overall QoL, particularly among those living in institutions; although they were easily satisfied with their lives, compared with their counterparts in other countries. The authors recommend that the improvement of QoL among persons with ID in Taiwan must not be ignored by the policy makers, practitioners, and their families, particularly with respect to enabling individuals with ID to be more included in society. [source]


Community-Based Day Services for Adults With Intellectual Disabilities in the United Kingdom: A Review and Discussion

JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 4 2007
Murray K. Simpson
Abstract, Recent policy statements about services for adults with intellectual disabilities in the UK have pushed for a reoriented day services model. However, there is comparatively little research into new models of day service provision. Drawing on the findings of an evaluation of a "dispersed" or "center-less" service, the author discusses the potential contribution such services might play. These findings showed that services based on accessing mainstream community amenities and facilities, rather than scheduled attendance at special day services centers, are popular with service users, staff, and parents. However, such conclusions can mask longer-term and deeper tensions and problems. One notable feature is a failure to articulate clearly specific objectives for individuals and for the service. This elasticity and multiplicity of aims is what allows different constituent parties to appear to concur in their evaluations when in fact they have altogether different registers of success. These and a number of other questions are raised and need to be addressed before any further expansion of dispersed services is considered, such as their contribution to social inclusion and potential longer-term implications,running out of new activities, boredom, and so forth. More significant is the question of the symbolic role day services centers played as a physical and fiscal commitment to public service provision. There are reasons to suspect that an increased shift toward dispersed services may lead to a declining commitment by local authorities to provide for others than those persons with severe or complex disabilities. [source]


Employment, social inclusion and mental health

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2000
J. Evans bsc econ (hons) rmn dip (psychosocial management of psychosis)
Whereas unemployment is clearly linked to mental health problems, employment can improve quality of life, mental health, social networks and social inclusion. Yet in the UK only 15% of people with serious mental health problems are employed , despite an overwhelming consensus from surveys, case studies and personal accounts that users want to work. This paper aims to challenge common misconceptions surrounding employment, work and mental health problems. Drawing on a range of research evidence and legislative guidance it discusses significant barriers to work and proposes feasible solutions. The need for mental health staff and services to become involved in the provision of work opportunities is considered, as is the vital role they can play in changing communities. The potency of work as a vehicle for improving the social inclusion and community tenure of people with mental health problems is highlighted. [source]


The Psychology of Enfranchisement: Engaging and Fostering Inclusion of Members through Voting and Decision-Making Procedures

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2008
Celia M. Gonzalez
Democratic systems have many advantages. They elicit perceptions of appropriateness and legitimacy, they engage the psychological investment and commitment of those participating in the system and invite the voluntary cooperation of these persons. We argue that these advantages are conferred in large part through two features of democratic institutions and societies: the participative nature of procedures used to elect leaders, and the fairness of decision-making procedures used by these leaders once in power. In particular, we emphasize the capacity of these procedures to engage community members and foster their inclusion, because they convey that members' concerns are taken seriously and that they are valued by the group that developed and employed those procedures, as well as by the leaders that utilize them. Implications for creating a sense of social inclusion in members of the population, and for encouraging public confidence among those who feel marginalized, in climates of distrust, and during times of crisis are discussed. [source]