rience health inequalities compared with the general population. Although their life expectancy is increasing it remains much lower than the rest of the population. Additionally people with intellectual disabilities have higher level of health needs than others which are often unrecognised and experience barriers in accessing health and social services. People with intellectual disabilities are often placed in psychiatric hospitals which are inappropriate to their needs. There is now debate around the rights and legal capacity of people with intellectual or cognitive impairments and how can they best be protected while maintaining human dignity and worth and self determination.
Many families are the key support for children with disabilities and for adults requiring supports – especially adults with intellectual disabilities and higher support needs. Family support services are vital for these families and require services from specially trained social workers.
People with emotional impairments
Individuals identified as having an emotional impairment manifest problems primarily in the affective domain. Often persons with an emotional impairment especially children cannot profit from learning experiences without additional education support.
They are unable to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships in school or in the work place. What are seen as inappropriate behaviours, lead to misunderstanding in schools at home and at the work place. In Germany children with emotional impairments are often sent to an educationally “subnormal” school.
Disability across the life span
The needs of persons with disability change over the life span from children through to young adulthood to adulthood and ageing. Programs and services need to reflect those changes. Early intervention is crucial for all aspects for disability programs and services. Women with disabilities experience deeper discrimination as witnessed by even lower rates for employment than men with disabilities and higher rates of abuse and violence.
There has been a greater recognition of the rights of people with disabilities and their rightful inclusion in society and community. However, social exclusion still exists on many levels often implicitly in social attitudes and values. Social inclusion has become a major international agenda and this must incorporate the input and participation of persons with disability of all ages and all world communities.
Social workers are strategically positioned to develop, implement, and advocate for policies, programmes, services, and research that support and benefit persons with a disability. Acknowledging that people with disability comprise a significant proportion of the world’s population, IFSW encourages the consideration of people with disabilities in all of its policies. IFSW also supports the following policy principles that promote the inclusion of all people with disabilities in all societies and communities.
- IFSW endorses the CRPD and encourages all countries to sign the convention and the optional protocol
- IFSW stresses and affirms the core commitment of the social work profession to human rights for people with disabilities including the elimination of physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse, exploitation, and neglect,
- IFSW supports the full participation of people with disabilities in the design, implementation, and evaluation of disability programmes, policies, and research.
- IFSW supports the self determination of people with disabilities in all aspects of their lives
- IFSW will work to promote the full inclusion of all people with disabilities, including people with physical, psychological, and cognitive disabilities, in all aspects of society including education, paid employment, community living, political participation, as well as cultural, and social activities.
- IFSW will work to ensure that people with disability receive proper health and mental health care, primary and acute care, including effective medications and sexual health care; rehabilitative services and assistive