Inclusion in the Workforce for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Case Study of a Spanish Postsecondary Education Program.
The Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) is the first Spanish university to provide training to young people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the university environment, which qualifies them for inclusion in the workforce. In this practice brief we describe the UAM-Prodis Patronage Chair program, a successful model used at Spanish universities within the European Higher Education convention framework, which addresses the inclusion and occupational training of young people with ID in order to help them obtain employment. We begin with a review of the special education system for young people with ID in Spain. We report outcome data for students with ID who completed the program at UAM during its first four years of implementation. These outcomes indicate that the UAM-Prodis Patronage Chair program has become one of the main strategies to achieve independent living and community integration of people with ID through a postsecondary education option.
A Multiple Case Study Examining the Challenges and Successes in the Development and Implementation of Transition and Post-Secondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities.
The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the successes, challenges, and factors identified to mitigate or overcome the identified challenges, as experienced by program directors, faculty, and staff, in the development and implementation of transition and post-secondary education programs, for students identified with intellectual disability at 4-year post-secondary educational institutions. Theories guiding this study were program implementation theory (Weiss, 1997) and disability theory (Mertens, 2009). Sites included three transition and postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability, utilizing similarly designed program models at a four-year post-secondary institution. Multiple forms of data collected from each site included participant surveys, interviews, observations, focus group, program related documents, and public information retrieved from social media and institutional web sites were analyzed through in-case and across-case analyses. The study revealed the need for strategic planning to identify the most appropriate program model to ensure sustainability of the program, including planning for funding, staffing, development of policies and procedures, and student admission, prior to student admission in the program. In addition, this study revealed the need for commitment, flexibility, and collaboration among program directors, faculty, and staff to meet the ever changing and fluid environment in serving students within a transition and post-secondary education program for students with ID. Further study is needed to identify best practices in student selection processes, programmatic policies, curriculum, and sustainable funding sources.
The Influence of the Supervision of Psychotherapy upon being Therapeutic: II: Modes of Influence of the Supervisory Relationship *
Through supervision, the student develops those innate personal characteristics which are highly important in being therapeutic. In making conscious use of “reality identification” by the student with his teacher, we must take care to avoid certain pitfalls. What is not wanted is transference identification. To help avoid this, we must select appropriate teachers as supervisors. The student should also have more than one supervisor, as this tends to protect against the development of over-idealization on the part of the student, and of omnipotence on the part of the teacher. Personal characteristics of both students and supervisors are extremely important. A good supervisory experience is the most likely vehicle for developing those qualities in the student which will, in time, lead him to function most therapeutically.