Work, leisure and retirement are fundamental aspects of life for individuals with an intellectual disability, just as with the general population. Many educational efforts have taught knowledge and skills to persons with an intellectual disability to improve their functioning in the work and leisure domains. More recently, retirement concerns have become particularly salient because so many individuals now live much longer. The present study looked at using a conceptual approach to improve education in these three domains. It employed the principles that instruction works much better when it proceeds from an individual=s existing concepts and that instruction should teach useful concepts that an individual can apply to improve his or her real world functioning. This conceptual approach has not been used much with the education of persons with an intellectual disability. In Study 1, sixty adults with an intellectual disability were interviewed to determine their existing concepts of work, leisure and retirement and their work and leisure histories. Most had solid concepts of work and leisure, but with some gaps, particularly in notions of volunteer work and occupational status. Most reported satisfactory work and leisure lives. Most had a relatively poor concept of retirement at best and had done little or no retirement planning. These data suggested some key targets for an educational program to improve their knowledge and functioning in these domains. In Study 2, these data were used to develop an instructional program that focussed on gaps in knowledge of volunteer work, banking, budgeting and participation in satisfying leisure activities and in retirement planning. This instructional program was delivered over eight weeks to a class consisting of nine adults with an intellectual disability, with some success. This general conceptual approach can be usefully applied to teaching in other important domains with persons with an intellectual disability. They can be taught key concepts which they can use to live their lives more purposely and independently.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature and content of the social policy of "normalization" in community based services which have been used to meet the needs of deinstitutionalized mentally retarded adults. In the process it was hoped that data would be obtained to aid decision makers in planning community services for retarded adults. The study was directed to examine the relationship between the levels of normalization in services which had been provided for retarded adults who were discharged from the Provincial institution for mental retardation - Woodlands - under the medical administration of retardation services as well as after the assumption of same responsibility by the Ministry of Human Resources. These administrations represented the medical and the social systems of service delivery. "Normalization" had been adopted as "policy" soon after the transfer of responsibilities by the Ministries. Three areas of concern were examined: Levels of normalization of services; needs of subjects; and normalization as policy. These areas had been central to public discussion of retardation issues in British Columbia. In order to examine the three areas, normalization was defined in the Greater Vancouver Area of study using the explicit judgement of citizens and the implicit judgement of professionals. From their judgements, a criteria for measuring normalization was developed and used in scoring individual services according to the special features of those services. A total of seven service areas were scored: Residential, Social, Medical, Recreational, Educational, Psychological and Vocational. The needs of subjects were identified from institutional records and scored. Five service characteristics were further examined for normalization. These were the nature, type, name, location and degree of integration. An integrated framework for policy analysis as well as empirical results were then used to analyse findings. The study showed that community services were essentially deviant in orientation; that level of normalization were about the same for each five year period of study; that services were inadequate in meeting needs; that there was lack of coordination in delivery of services] and that "normalization" was a principle rather than a policy of the Provincial Government. Implications for policy development as well as areas for further research have been suggested. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

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