International Perspectives on Disability Services (PDF)

Learn how to include multiculturalism in disability-related social work!

International Perspectives on Disability Services: The Same but Different presents different cultural and societal contexts on services for people with disabilities. This book covers a range of topics on disabilities related to physical status, emotional conditions, and community settings. This useful introductory reference will help you develop culturally sensitive disability services both locally and overseas, and it will promote better understanding of people with disabilities.

This book is a unique examination of services for people with disabilities as they exist in several countries. Until recently, cultural context was used to describe race or ethnicity, but this innovative text recognizes people with disabilities as a worldwide community that is advocating for equality and respect. International Perspectives on Disability Services focuses on the need for human and social services that endorse capability and empowerment—promoting the person rather than the disability.

In International Perspectives on Disability Services, you'll learn about:

• using the term “culture” to describe the community of people with disabilities—how cultural sensitivity and competency can be applied to the disability culture
• the dynamics of a transcultural relationship between psychotherapist and deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals
• the recent development in aphasia treatment—Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA)—and the international perspective of communication therapy
• a comparison of attitudes among social work students in the United States and Japan toward people with disabilities—people with disabilities are not yet integrated into Japanese society, but both groups showed room for needed improvement
• a comparison of disability-related services and experiences in the United States and in Germany—child-raising leave, child-raising money, and Kindergeld (child money) helps support parents financially for the first few years, but the United States has more options for integrated schooling later in life
• Hong Kong's 25-year-old objective to encourage community integration and normalization for people with disabilities to live in the community
• the primary support network of family, community leaders, and shaman for people with disabilities among Hmong Americans in Northern California

The informative reports, research findings, case studies, and international comparisons offer new directions for human service professionals and students to help them better meet the social, psychological, and cultural needs of people with disabilities. International Perspectives on Disability Services provides clear-cut evidence that disability-oriented social workers need to improve their perspectives as the disability culture gains momentum as a social entity. This book is a must-read for anyone who works or provides disability-related services, as well as for people with disabilities who need more information on other countries' services.