Response to ability diversity

 Tanya Tepatti Discussion 1 - Week 9COLLAPSE

     Historically, people with any kind of disability were discriminated against and given no chance at living a quality life. Jason Kingsley, an individual who was born with Downs Syndrome, his parents were told from the start to put him in an institution because he would never be able to learn anything (Adams, et al., 2018). However, as an adult, Jason lives with two other roommates, completes activities of daily living independently, and is employed at a library (Adams, et al., 2018). History reveals that individuals with disabilities were marginalized due to a lack of knowledge and understanding. Today, parents with a child born with Downs Syndrome would be given the proper resources to help the child develop and learn. They would not be told to put them in an institution. As a social worker, it is essential to support their clients with varying abilities and a range of disabilities by first acknowledging that there is much more to their identity than what people see with the eye. Social worker need to advocate and support individuals with disabilities and provide them with resources that will help to gain a better quality of life. Whether that is helping them to explore and obtain state funding, home aides, support groups, or individual therapy, social workers work with a plethora of clients and do not discriminate on their disability or lack of abilities. In the case study of Valerie, the social worker utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy to address her repetitive negative thought patterns that affected her behavior (Plummer, Makris, and Brocksen, 2014). Valerie also explained what it was like to have a disability to further help the social worker to understand how she felt and the difficulties of daily living such as accessibility. Social workers identify what is the root cause of a client’s feelings, but also how to address that feeling to help the client live a successful life.

 Jasmine Bethea RE: Discussion 1 - Week 9COLLAPSE

Society has marginalized those with developmental disabilities due to ignorance, looking different, and the lack of compassion. However, that is just my personal opinion. Here are the facts: People with varying abilities are marginalized because they are different, bullied, looked down upon, and display signs of disorders (Chan, 2015).

Historically people with developmental disabilities were shackled, beaten, treated poorly, left unclothed, chained and beaten (Tracy, 2018).  In the past, people who were different were treated unfairly due to the lack of knowledge for their condition.  Caregivers were burned out and didn’t have the proper resources and access to supports as we do today. Currently, we have access to the proper resources to provide us with knowledge and the tools needed to work with the special need population.

Social workers can support individuals with developmental disabilities by accessing resources to expand knowledge of resources and services, The Parker Family, for example, the ICM Worker contacted Sara’s treatment team to inform them of the progress with clean up and suggested Sara may need additional support.  A Social Worker can support individuals by attaining knowledge on the different types of disabilities, empowering and uplifting the client (DeJong. 1998).