Social Role Valorization: Social Conditions & Treatment as a Disabling Process

is available at:

Dennis Felty of Keystone Human Services

http://www.keystonehumanservices.org/wounding.html

(NOW UNAVAILABLE)

Cached:

Social Role Valorization: Social Conditions & Treatment as a Disabling Process

Throughout history, people experiencing disabilities, have been subject to marginalization, segregation and treatment in other adverse fashions as a result of their disability. The conditions under which people lived in our institutions when Keystone was founded in 1972 were horrendous. It was not uncommon for over 100 people to have to share a single bed room, there was no due process, the environments were filthy, brutal and often medical care was non existent. People were frequently bathed in gang showers and were often placed in nude seclusion for days on end. Electro shock was routinely administered as a behavioral control. The foundation of such treatment was deeply rooted in our culture and was driven by the eugenics movement and the general fear of people who are perceived as being different. Every single component described below was present in the lives of the people who lived in institutions at the time of Keystone's founding. It is a tribute to the individual will and endurance of those people and the other thousands who are now living full successful lives in the community after having come home from institutions. As we continue with our work, a deep understanding of these issues is an essential safeguard to assure we do not contribute to the wounding of vulnerable people. For more information on the historical context of this reality, see the KHS History links especially the web page for People First of Tennessee and the KHS History web page.

The following SRV concepts help to define the elements and process of wounding, making it more probable that they will be recognizable in contemporary society. The following material has been adapted from original work by Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger. Over the last thirty years, Dr. Wolfensberger has had a profound influence on the Community Movement and the many hundreds of people associated with Keystone.

Common Elements of Wounding in the Lives of Devalued Persons

Experiencing the impact of Physical Disability.

Being unequal before the law including being denied full citizenship

Being rejected by family, neighbors, community, society and service workers

Having restrictions placed on one's free speech, movement or choice of residence.

Being cast into one or more historical devalued roles with recurrent relegation to a marginal social status

Symbolic stigmatization by marking or labeling the person or their possessions or other related imaging

Being subject to continued and multiple threats and vulnerabilities

Being separated from valued persons via segregation, isolation, institutionalization, incarceration and congregation.

Not having control over one's life including loss of autonomy and freedom and, at times, being subject to unrestrained personal domination.

Being separated from one's home, family, community, physical environment and possessions.

Broken or lost relationships including abandonment and the absence of natural and freely given relationships

De-individualization, objectification and denial of one's cultural identity.

Involuntary economic poverty and exploitation accompanied by denial of economic opportunity

Exclusion from knowledge and participation in activities (community, religion, education, leadership, relationships, acquisition of status and power) that give meaning and value to life

Impoverishment of life experience

Having one's major life role being defined as that of a "Client" and or "Consumer".

Having one's life wasted through being forced to participate in meaningless, time wasting activities.

Brutalization, including vulnerability to life-threatening (deadly) processes including inadequate or dangerous health care practices.

Loss of personal history, identity and cultural heritage

Awareness of being a source of anguish to loved ones and absence of opportunity to contribute to family and community.

Social Deviance

A person becomes perceived as "deviant" by:

Being different from others in one or more dimension which are perceived as being significant by a majority of the empowered segment of society who value this different-ness negatively.

Control of Social Deviance

Hierarchy of Interventions

Verbal attack and rejection (antilocution)

Avoidance

Discrimination

Isolation and segregation

Physical attack

Extermination

adapted from work by Gordon Alport (The Nature of Prejudice)

Discrimination

Conduct based on making a distinction on natural or social categories, which have no relation either to individual capacities or merits, or to the concrete behavior of the individual person.

Historical Interpretations of Devalued Persons

As animal or subhuman species

As a menace or threat to society

As a vegetable

As an object (commodity)

As a burden of charity

As an object of ridicule

As a sick or diseased person

As an eternal child

As a holy innocent

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Objects

Facility image or history as warehouse

Language which uses objectification and words such as: "beds", "slots", "bods", "material", "cases", "covered lives" or referring to people or programs by numbers

Speaking about people in their presence as if they were absent, invisible, non existent or insensitive.

Referring to people by their disability or condition: "an MR", "the homeless", "the clients", "the kids", "the chronics", "the bag lady", "wheelchair people", "the disabled", "the kidney in 302"

Procedures that treat people as objects that can be transferred, traded, owned, purchased or moved around at the will of others.

Reimbursement policies that cast people in consumer roles (being valued for their ability to consume services and generate revenue) with economic value or as a commodity.

Holding providers accountable for "client behavior"

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Menaces

Expressed need for external control: conspicuous locks, door handles that don’t work, panoptic staff stations, use of transvisual partitions, electric eyes, TV monitors.

Barred windows, security fences, security stations, cage imagery, seclusion rooms

Use of restraints

Convict style garb and hair cuts

Alarming signs: "caution handicapped", "no trespassing", "no firearms"

Co-located with a penitentiary or detention center

Absence of private areas

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Animals

Denial of human sensibilities, e.g.; no heat, no privacy for toileting, bathing, mass showers, noise, offensive odors, hose showers, filth, etc.

Implication that residents lack judgment and need external control such as staff controlled lights, temperature, access

Expectation of primitive or animal like behavior; use of heavy-duty, immovable, soil proof furniture, caged TV, drains in floors

Implications that people need protection against themselves, e.g.; no toilet or shower doors, no locks on bedrooms, no sharp objects

Staff land - areas including bathrooms exclusively for use of staff

Acceptance of nudity (denuditive behavior)

Lack of instruction and support in personal hygiene

Animal like "feeding" procedures

Use of animal names for people, conditions or programs

Use of animal protection agencies for child protection services

Talking about persons in their presence without including them in the conversation

Use of "the..."

Fund raising that is animal imaged

Extension of animal rights based on perceived level of consciousness

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Objects of Pity

Donation plaques on walls

Decals, logos, signs declaring service is funded by.........

Collection of discarded and cast off goods as revenue source

Image association with recycled goods

Sale of goods produced by the "handicapped"

Emphasizing persons misfortunes as a base of fund raising

Underpaying workers with disabilities

Referring to "victims", "the poor unfortunates", "if but by the grace of God"

Agency names which suggest pity and charity

Imaging salvation with salvaging discarded goods and people

Use of "poster children"

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Objects of Ridicule

Clown and circus decor in a facility

Use of carnivals and circus for fund raising

Display of people as a curiosity or for ridicule

Encouraging or teaching bizarre, or inappropriate behaviors

Ridiculing or mocking odd characteristics of people, e.g.; telling demeaning jokes, imitating, teasing

Identifying fund raising activities with clowns (Ronald McDonald) or with a jokester identity (Jerry Lewis)

Dressing people who are devalued to look like clowns, hoboes or buffoons

Failure to provide instruction and support to eliminate devalued mannerisms or conditions

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Sick/Diseased

Facility design, appearance, name or history medical in nature

Located next to medical facility or owned or administered by a medical facility

Treating non-medical conditions with medical terms

Use of hospital schedules, shifts, visiting hours

Residents dressed in hospital garb

Labeling non-medical programs or services with medically imaged names, e.g.; "mental health clinic", "state hospital", "nursing home"

Services under medical control, regulation or funding

Interpreting ordinary problems or challenges of life as sickness that require medical solutions

Common Ways of "Marking" or Negative Imaging of Devalued Persons

Putting service to people at value risk into value tainted locations and facilities

Imaging (juxtaposing) people at value risk with persons who have different negative images, e.g.; MH/MR

Use of value and image impairing methods or activities in providing services to persons at image risk

Providing persons at image risk with image impairing names and labels

Use of image impairing agency names, logos and public relations

Neglecting the personal appearance of people at risk

Neglecting the appearance and image of program sites

Funding service to people at risk with image-tainted money or devaluing appeals

Imaging adults at risk as children

Interpretations of Devalued Persons as Eternal Children

Encouraging immature interests

Encouraging actual or the perception of lowered competence

Locating adult services next to or as part of children’s services

Promoting child like roles, expressions and language

Promoting age and competence degrading interests in recreation, hobbies and other activity.

Dressing adults in styles and fashions that are age-inappropriate being childlike or immature.

Use of age-degrading forms of address and personal reference that cast adults in the role of children or adolescents - "the kids"

Major Themes of Social Role Valorization

THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS - The unconscious has a powerful impact on human service planning and operations and the ultimate social role of vulnerable people.

SOCIAL DEVALUATION - The process of social devaluation can have a devastating impact on the lives vulnerable people.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES - The real effect of complex processes are not easily understood or anticipated.

MODEL COHERENCY - Model coherency is a critical concept in human service planning.

IMAGE COMPENSATION - It is critical to provide positive compensation in image and identity for people that are at high image or competency risk.

CONSERVATION COROLLARY - The "conservation corollary" is a major strategy of protecting persons at significant image risk.

SYMBOLISM - Symbolism and imagery have a powerful impact in creating both valued or devalued social role expectancies for vulnerable people.

ROLE EXPECTANCY - Role expectancy and role circularity are significant determinates in creating valued and devalued roles for people at risk.

DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL - The Developmental Model and increasing personal competency are effective tools in creating valued outcomes in peoples lives.

IMITATION - Imitation, modeling and identification have significant impact on actual and or perceived competence and valued social roles.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION - Social integration and active participation in the family and community contribute significantly to the well being, competence, valued role and safety of persons at risk.