ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Breaking Through Discourses Barriers to Collaboration in Service Provision
by
Jenny Green
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Coauthors: Bronwen Dalton

Disability discourse in the policy of service provision in the last century has been deconstructed and documented at many levels (Goldberg & Leadley, 2001; Oliver 1994). It highlights the contingent and changing nature of views and systems responsible for meeting the needs of people disempowered and vulnerable in societies geared more and more towards to individualism, competition and perfection. It exposes the different interests of the different stakeholders such as government, service providers, families and individuals with disability and reveals the common experience of communication at cross purposes. Communication that often results and resulted in inertia in the disability sector.

Since the International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981 the western world has seen a progressive devolution of large whole of life institutions into small community based services (Clapton, J. & Fitzgerald, J. 1997). In NSW Australia this process commenced with the release of the Richmond Report in 1983 (Clear, 2000). From the outset families of people with an intellectually disability were alerted to the change in direction in care and the eventual devolution of the institution in which their loved ones lived, to community based living. Families found themselves thrown into a new discourse of rights and principles such as normalisation and social role valorisation. However, the economic rationalist governments of the 1990’s slowed the process of deinstitutionalisation. Government emphasis changed from direct service provision to contracting and funding nongovernment service providers. A ‘one size fits all’ approach to funding resulted in the people with the highest and most complex support needs remaining in large government institutions that were in a process of decline and decay. Parents began to experience the public policies as rhetoric rather than foreshadowing reality. Community groups and activists moved from a position of partnership with government in the community inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities to a more adversarial position of agitating and lobbying for increased change.

As a result of a six-year period of agitation and lobbying, the NSW Government agreed to and provided funding for the deinstitutionalisation of the Marsden Rehabilitation Centre (MRC) in 2002 and the establishment of a nongovernment community based accommodation service to support the residents. MRC was a state run, large whole of life institution for adults with significant intellectual disabilities and complex support needs that had been operating for forty years. The buildings were old, in need of major structural repair and interior refurbishment. Its closure was an urgent priority for local community groups and activists.

This paper deconstructs the discourses present in the negotiation process for the devolution of the Marsden Rehabilitation Centre and the community placement of its 57 residents. Parties involved in the six years of negotiations included community representatives and advocates, families, nongovernment service providers, government service providers and government funders. It highlights the relationship between disability discourses and the economic, political and social paradigms of the day. It explores the power relationships present in discourse (Foucalt, 1980, 1984). It identifies the constraints in the negotiation process and analyses the strategies used by all parties to get beyond the barriers and reach a crafted solution that elevated the needs of the residents above the limitations of policy boundaries and current practice.

Clapton, J. & Fitzgerald, J. (1997). The history of disability: a history of ‘otherness’. New Renaissance magazine 7, 1.

Clear M. (2000) Promises, Promises. Sydney: The Federation Press Foucault, M. (1980) Two lecturers. In Power/knowledge, selected interviews and other writings. 1972-1977, (ed) Gordon, C., p. 78-108. London: Harvest Press.

Foucault, M. (1984) Space knowledge and power. In The Foucault reader. (ed) Rainbow, P., p. 239-256. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Goldberg, M. & Leadley, S. (2001) Disability and the Body: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Historical Context and Public Policy http://www.bothell.washington.edu/faculty/mgoldberg/courses/424a/ResearchProject.html Oliver, M. (1994) Politics and Language: Understanding the Disability Discourse http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Oliver/pol%20and%20lang%2094.pdf

Date received: September 29, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caml-03.