The emancipation of visually impaired people in social science research practice

In 1999 we began research, funded by the ‘Thomas Pocklington Trust’, to explore the opinions of visually impaired people on visual impairment research. We found people wanted greater inclusion of visually impaired people in such research and participatory, empowering and emancipatory research was a priority for them. We also found, through reviewing the academic literature, that there was a dearth of such work in the field. In this article we revisit the topic to review research that has or has not been conducted since our first study to see if there has been a change in the use of emancipatory methods in the field. We have contextualized our review in a discussion on the field of disability studies and the international social policy context of disability issues. We found a growth of interest and activity in participatory, emancipatory and empowering research in the field of disability research more generally. There was also some indication that the social model of disability has had an impact on national and international social policy. However, our review found that there continues to be a dearth of emancipatory research in relation to visual impairment. The one study we did locate highlighted how participatory methods are not, in our view, necessarily consistent with the epistemological underpinnings of emancipatory methods. We believe the call from within disability studies for the greater use of emancipatory research methods has not been sufficiently realized in the field of visual impairment and more needs to be done to ground politically informed epistemological understandings in visual impairment research if more progress is to be made.

The Effectiveness of Local Authority Social Services' Occupational Therapy for Older People in Great Britain: A Critical Literature Review

Introduction:

Older people are the main users of adult social care services in Great Britain. Evidence suggests that occupational therapists employed by local authorities are providing interventions that promote and maintain older people's independence, and decrease dependency on other services. However, such evidence is disparate in nature and lacks synthesis.

Method:

This literature review systematically selected, critically appraised, and thematically synthesized the post 2000 published and unpublished evidence on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions for older people in social care services.

Findings:

Identified themes established: the localized nature of social care services for older people; organizational and policy impacts on services, and factors influencing effectiveness and cost effectiveness. Although occupational therapists are increasingly involved in rehabilitation and reablement, there is a continuing focus on equipment and adaptations provision. A high level of service user satisfaction was identified, once timely occupational therapy services were received.

Conclusion:

Overall, occupational therapy in social care is perceived as effective in improving quality of life for older people and their carers, and cost effective in making savings for other social and healthcare services. However, the complex nature of social care services makes it difficult to disaggregate the effectiveness of occupational therapy from other services.

An Exploration of Communication between Clients and Professionals in the Design of Home Adaptations

This study explored communications between the people involved in the design of home adaptations, including clients and carers, occupational therapists, surveyors and builders. The aims were to explore (i) what constituted good communication in this context and (ii) how communication occurred. One London borough was selected as a case study. All participants lived or worked within the borough and had been involved in the adaptation process. Nineteen individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with six clients, four occupational therapists, six grant surveyors and three builders.

The findings suggest that the professionals constituted a ‘community of practice’ (Wenger 1998) within which communication was good. The professionals used plan drawings to support communication between them. However, the study found that client involvement in the design was limited and that plan drawings were not effective tools in communication with them. The clients relied on the occupational therapist to represent their interests in the design process. Occupational therapists' communication with clients on the design of adaptations may be enhanced by the development and use of more sophisticated visualisation tools to replace the plan drawings. This would enable clients to become more engaged in the adaptations process.