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In Canada, social work—both the profession and the academic discipline—has given inadequate attention to individuals living with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is true regardless of whether the social work role is in a clinical capacity, community-based programs, academic research and educational endeavours, or an advocacy role or supporting self-advocacy for basic needs and rights to services and supports. Many people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their supporters, value community involvement and integration, quality of life, and access to a wide range of services, so it is likely that social workers will encounter these clients in their careers. Consequently, the onus is on the social work profession to attend more fully and carefully to preparing students, practitioners, and researchers.
This peer-reviewed volume provides a range of perspectives, practices, and ideas relative to social work’s engagements with individuals living with autism, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities. Contributors include social work practitioners, academic and community-based researchers, educators, activists, and self-advocates. Reflecting different ways of theorizing, speaking about, and working with people with autism, intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, it explores both tensions and possibilities for social work practice, research, education, advocacy, and policy development that better meet their needs and desires for their lives.
Social Work Practice in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, edited by Kevin P. Stoddart and Ann Fudge Schormans, is a landmark text that profoundly enriches social work scholarship, especially in the area of disability. By blending personal narratives, historical and political analysis, and professional insights, it offers a nuanced exploration of autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and social work practice to support people with these identities. The inclusion of voices with lived experience as co-authors and self-authors of knowledge about their lives gives authenticity, respect, and depth to this important volume. Each chapter provides a rigorous, theoretically rich discussion of relevant issues while providing practical guidance for reflective and empowerment-based practices that will create better possibilities for individuals and families who encounter social work practitioners. This is a must-read for any social work practitioner aiming to advance opportunities and inclusion for people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
PREFACE
SECTION ONE: Introduction to Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
1. “Intellectual Disability”: What Self-advocates Labelled/with Intellectual Disability Want Social Work to Know – Ann Fudge Schormans, Sue Hutton, Marissa Blake, Antoinette Charlebois, Paul Cochrane, Shineeca McLeod and Marie Slark
2. An Introduction to the Autism Spectrum across the Lifespan for Social Work – Kevin P. Stoddart, B. Muskat, and S.J. Southey
SECTION TWO: Theoretical and Historical Influences in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
3. Enough is enough! A critical disability interrogation of social work’s approaches to working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by Kendal M. David, Maimuna, S. Khan and Yahya El-Lahib
4. Human Rights Focused Social Work Practice for People Labelled with Intellectual Disabilities – Sue Hutton and Kerri Joffe
5. “I would like to be a parent”: Intimate Citizenship Rights for People with Intellectual Disabilities – Ann Fudge Schormans, Donna McCormick, Joanna Drassinower, Paul Cochrane, Peter Marese, Sam McKhail, Sean Rowley, and Ted Myerscough
6. Social Work in Government: Through a Deinstitutionalization Lens – Stephanie Conant
7. Save your Tears for Another day: A Mother's story of Pre-natal Screening and Down Syndrome – Jennifer Crowson
SECTION THREE: Practice Topics and Approaches in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
8. Social Workers Achieving Positive Outcomes Using Family Systems Interventions – J. Dale Munro
9. Mental Health in Autistic Adolescents and Adults – Kevin P. Stoddart
10. The Mindful Social Worker: Cultivating a Conscious Practice with Autistic Individuals and their Families – Karen Dillon and Stephanie Moeser
11. Addressing Barriers to Rewarding Work: Employment for People on the Autism Spectrum – Todd Simkover
12. Do “Evidence-Based Practices” Translate to the Treatment of Mental Health Concerns in Individuals Labelled with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities? – Jessica Kennedy-Raimondo
13. Autism, Mental Health, and the Law: Forging Social Work Practice in Forensic Settings – Rae Morris
References
List of Contributors
Index