Self-Determination and Participation of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Advocating for Shared Decision-Making Processes in Social Work
Maria Turati
The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical reflection on the relationship between self-determination and participation in supporting people with intellectual disabilities. Social workers are required to respect people’s self-determination and ensure their participation in support planning processes. However, these two principles often give rise to concerns among practitioners: people with intellectual disabilities are often marginalised in decision-making processes because of doubts about their ability to make decisions for themselves. Therefore, the meaning and application of the principles need to be questioned in order to provide an ethical guide for social workers working with people with intellectual disabilities. The article presents a reflection on this issue, drawing on social work literature and linking the resulting considerations to a participatory research experience undertaken by the author, in which a meaning of participation is built together with people with intellectual disabilities. The discussion highlights the links between the theoretical reflections and the insights gained from working with co-researchers and participants. The implications for practice are related to the need for social workers to be aware of the barriers that people with intellectual disabilities face, both in making decisions for themselves and in helping relationships.
Keywords
Intellectual disabilities, Social work, Self-determination, Participation, Social work research.
