services for disabled students and employees in five allied health professions: the uk experience...
TRANSCRIPT
Services for disabled students and employees in
five allied health professions: the UK experience
Colloque de l’AQICESHUniversité du Québec à Montréal
June 6th – 8th 2012Presenters: Jane Owen Hutchinson
and Karen AtkinsonAllied Health Professions Support Service
Introductions
Jane Owen Hutchinson, Manager Allied Health Professions Support Service (AHPSS)
Karen Atkinson, Manager AHPSS Resource Centre, Senior Lecturer, University of East London
Context
In the UK, disabled people: are half as likely as non-disabled people to be qualified to
degree level twice as likely as non-disabled people to have no qualifications continue to experience high rates of unemployment (50%
compared to 79%) In 2009 42.4% of disabled graduates were in full-time
employment compared with 46.2% of non-disabled graduates (AGCAS 2011)
This indicates that the role of higher education is vital in enabling disabled people to realise their potential in terms of employment
AHP Educational Context
Majority of programmes are 3 year BSc (Hons) degrees
Increasing number of accelerated 2 year Pre Registration MSc courses
Less part time opportunities Universities generally becoming more
inclusive
Educational Context
Significant proportion of the education of health care professionals takes place in the clinical setting
Clinical placements – educational experiences very variable for all students
AHPSS
AHPSS supports disabled students and employees in the following professions throughout the UK: Dietetics Occupational Therapy Physiotherapy Podiatry Speech and Language Therapy
Significant barriers are still encountered
AHPSS Mission
Our mission is to challenge disability by delivering a service that promotes equality of opportunity by:
• empowering disabled healthcare students and employees to overcome the barriers they encounter within the educational and employment environments
• raising awareness of disability issues to support educators, clinicians and employers to promote best practice within education and employment settings
• enabling an inclusive approach to disabled health care students and employees
AHPSS
Unique
Authentic
Experience
ExpertiseReputation
Influence
Resources
Our Resource Centre
Resources
Funded by DH – has enabled us to provide essentially free services to all UK based clients Peripatetic Advice and guidance Employment preparation Advice on inclusive educational practice Staff training sessions - in HE and the clinical context One to one support for disabled AHP students and
employees Consultancy services to employers,
Professional/Voluntary Organisations and Disability Services Teams
Research
Transition from HE to NHS for Visually Impaired Physiotherapists
Experiences of Physiotherapy Practice Educators: Supporting Disabled Students
Barriers
Lack of awareness of disability issues Lack of awareness/availability of resources
and sources of support Stereotyping, discrimination, prejudice and
stigmatisation Fear and anxiety:
Staff don’t know what to do to support, don’t want to offend
Applicants think that if they disclose their disability they will not be successful
Barriers: contributing factors
Inadequate communicationReluctance to discloseVariable student engagementFailure to implement reasonable
adjustmentsHuman and financial resourcesAttitudinal issues
Inadequate communication
Reluctance to disclose
“…disclosure’s not something I’m very good at especially
because a lot of people don’t believe me, and because I don’t look like I’ve got a disability...I
can get away with looking completely normal”
“I had to say ‘I’m visually impaired’…I hated it…it just used to grate on me every single time I said it because I thought why should I
have to tell it to somebody?”
Variable student engagement
A student contacts and visits the clinical area
in advance and organises all necessary
adjustments
A student goes onto placement with no support and has issues
with time management, organisation and documentation
A student does not even consider himself to be disabled
Failure to implement reasonable adjustments
“in terms of computer access I was limited
because I couldn’t read what was on the screen”
“what I had agreed with my tutor was that I was always going to be somewhere that was on a bus route or on a
train route - easily accessible. I don’t think they ever took that into consideration...”
“..I was told that there wasn’t any other assistant available…I’d have to go
it alone…and it was a case of oh well you’re just going
to have to cope”
Human and financial resources
Attitudinal issues
One clinical manager formally asked the
programme to stop recruiting disabled students as they
“could not be fit for practice”
“the best I got was I’ll get that done, I’ll do it sometime…so you
end up not getting a lot of information…this is incredibly frustrating”
“For no reason at all they said I
couldn’t walk around the school without
being accompanied…”
Thank youAny Questions?
Contact details
Jane Owen Hutchinson Manager, AHPSS Mobile: 07748 657457 Email: [email protected] Karen Atkinson Manager, AHPSS Resource Centre Tel: +00 44 208 223 4950 Mobile: 07918197995 Email: [email protected]