|
LiveWorkPlay
For People With Intellectual Disabilities
Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Area Since 1995
"SUCCESS THROUGH COMMUNITY"
|
LiveWorkPlay: Our Clients*
The best way to learn more about the people receiving support from LiveWorkPlay is to get the information directly from the source. Adult LiveWorkPlay participants have a public speaking group. They can come to you, or you can come to them! Send an email to info@liveworkplay.ca for more information and drop by our self-advocacy web page for short videos featuring participants as self-advocates and contributing citizens.
For those looking to better understand the people who benefit from LiveWorkPlay support in a more technical sense, the information below is an attempt to offer such a description.
Please note that although many of our program participants have common needs, each person is unique, and individualized plans are a critical aspect of the LiveWorkPlay approach.
What is an intellectual disability?
LiveWorkPlay started using the term "intellectual disability" in 2003. This decision came out of discussions with program participants who were struggling with the challenge of communicating the nature of their disability to other people.
There were certain terms that other people could understand, but the participants did like using those terms. There were certain terms that the participants did not mind using, but they found that people had a hard time making sense of those words.
"Intellectual disability" was the one term that seemed to work. Other people could understand it, and the participants could understand it. It did not make them feel bad to say it. It did not make them feel bad to hear it.
The staff relayed this information to the board of directors, along with some research and information from other groups and organizations in Canada and elsewhere, and the idea of gradually replacing "developmental disabilities" with "intellectual disabilities" was approved.
So what does it mean? In simple terms, most people with intellectual disabilities have unusually difficult challenges with four types of intellectual processes: abstraction, sequencing, understanding social contexts, and reading the emotional states of others. People with intellectual disabilities have unique needs with regard to information processing. The disability may affect learning, memory, problem solving, planning and other cognitive tasks.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities vary widely in their abilities, and definitions of intellectual disability also differ. Most definitions are in general agreement that a person has an intellectual disability if there are limitations affecting several areas of cognitive function to a degree that interferes with the demands of daily life.
Intellectual disability can be further categorized into mild, moderate, severe and profound. LiveWorkPlay supports people with mild intellectual disabilities. A person is considered to have a mild intellectual disability if intellectual functioning is 2 to 3 standard deviations below the norm on an individually administered psycho-educational assessment of intellectual functioning. The mild intellectual disability label correlates to an IQ range of about 55 up to about 70-75.
Approximately 1% to 2% of Canadians have been given a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Of these, about 90% have mild disabilities. The disability may be congenital (the individual is born with it) or it may be acquired, through accident or disease. Some people associate intellectual disability with specific causation (such as Down Syndrome, Prader-Willi, or Fragile X) but more commonly (in about 50% of cases) the cause is unknown (often described as a "generalized intellectual disability").
Intellectual disabilities cut across the lines of racial, ethnic, educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but many adults with intellectual disabilities live in poverty as a result of limited incomes.
Several terms have been commonly used to refer to intellectual disability, including cognitive impairment, developmental disability, mental challenge, mental handicap, mental retardation, and more. In the United Kingdom, the term learning disability typically refers to intellectual disability, but in North America, the term is used differently, and refers to populations with very distinct needs. As defined by the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, learning disabilities occur only in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities (as the term is used in Canada) is totally distinct from intellectual disability.
The term developmental disability is sometimes used interchangeably with intellectual disability. The term is being replaced in most jurisdictions by intellectual disability, because the word developmental can lead to confusion about the nature of the disability and its lifelong effects.
People with intellectual disabilities may have other disabilities, and this is not uncommon. For example, epilepsy and cerebral palsy occur approximately 8 times as frequently among people with severe intellectual disabilities as they do in the general population. Impaired vision and hearing are also more common among people with intellectual disabilities. Mental health issues are also common, and this is known as a "dual diagnosis" scenario.
Although severe intellectual disabilities can result in patterns of behaviour and communication that are noticeably atypical to the general public, mild intellectual disabilities often go unnoticed in most situations, causing confusion and even conflict. Unlike many other types of disability populations, there is no well-developed intellectual disability pride movement, and most people with intellectual disabilities are not well equipped for explaining their disability to others and advocating for their own needs.
Attempting to accurately define and describe intellectual disability can be difficult and complex. IQ scores are a very weak diagnostic tool, and evaluating limitations in adaptive skill areas can be a very subjective and interpretive process. The issue is further complicated by the fact that in addition to intellectual impairments, persons with intellectual disabilities are often challenged by affective and psycho-motor difficulties that also contribute to below average performance in a variety of skill areas.
In most cases, the challenges faced by clients of LiveWorkPlay are related primarily to intellectual ability, but many also experience difficulties in other spheres of personal development:
Cognitive
(Intellectual)
|
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
|
|
Affective
(Emotional) |
|
Psycho-Motor
(Physical)
|
|
For example, LiveWorkPlay has learned through experience that many young adults with intellectual disabilities are more significantly impeded by situational depression and other affective challenges that result from a lack of life opportunity than they are by intellectual deficits. For these reasons and more, although there are often many common needs, supporting people with intellectual disabilities requires an individualized approach.
While applying a label to LWP clients bears little or no relevance to the actual delivery of service, the reality is that persons with intellectual disabilities are one of the most underserviced populations in society, and in order to raise awareness of their needs, and advocate for more effective services, the use of a general descriptor is a necessity. In addition, and important aspect of promoting self-advocacy is supporting the individuals we serve to understand their own intellectual disability and develop competency in explaining it to others.
|
What does it all mean?
All that being said, this doesn't really tell you much about the people in the LiveWorkPlay community, what their lives are like, and what they have to offer. They are as unique as any other human being. Some can read very well. Some find reading very difficult. Some can socialize very well. Some find socializing very difficult. Some are quick with a smile and a handshake. Others are quiet around those they don't know well. You get the idea.
What all the participants in the LiveWorkPlay community have in common is that society, in general, does not always have time for them. They often find themselves on everyone else's schedule, and it doesn't work very well. Have you ever had the experience of working with someone who always wanted to go faster than you? Have you ever struggled to learn a new computer program while the person showing you how to use it was clicking buttons and typing on keys so fast that you had no idea what was happening?
That's often what life is like - every day - for a person with an intellectual disability. It doesn't come as a big surprise that self-confidence and self-esteem are common problems, does it? Or that "making a decision" can provoke extreme anxiety? When you are a person with an intellectual disability, normally there isn't enough time to make a decision - on other people's schedules - so they make it FOR you. So you never learn how to make your own decisions. Why believe in yourself when what you think and feel never seems to matter?
Unless some of the people around you slow down. And listen. And give you the support you need to make your own decisions, gain confidence, and take greater control over your own life. This is a brief explanation of how challenging life with an intellectual disability can be, and also touches on what the LiveWorkPlay mission is all about with its focus on self-advocacy.
An important note!
LiveWorkPlay is a very small organization with very few resources that are always stretched to the limit and beyond. As a result, the opportunity to take on new clients is extremely rare, and is usually limited to the entry level age (age 13 or 14) only.
Our staff work closely with individuals and their families every day, and understand how frustrating it can be to try and find appropriate services. But the answer is not to stretch LiveWorkPlay resources any further. The answer is funding that will not only support existing agencies, but allow for the creation of new ones. You are encouraged to contact your local MPP to make your needs known, as services for people with intellectual disabilities are the primary responsibility of provincial government.
To learn more about the entry process for LiveWorkPlay programs, please visit our registration page. This page has been updated to include information for Passport Initiative clients.
* Why was the word clients used on this web page?
We use the word "clients" in this context because it is appropriate to indicate that there is a professional relationship between program participants and the LiveWorkPlay organization. This is quite critical, as people with intellectual disabilities often suffer from misperceptions about relationships. This contributes to their isolation and exclusion in society.
When we say there is a professional relationship, we don't mean that there it isn't a loving and caring environment. It's a warm community. But it is a warm community where boundaries are appropriately defined and openly communicated.
In particular it is important that both paid LiveWorkPlay staff and unpaid program volutneers are clear that they are not friends or peers, they are there for the specific professional purpose of assisting the participants to reach their goals. Yes, they go above and beyond the ordinary expectations of a "job" but they work very hard to maintain appropriate personal boundaries. And with good reason.
It is a common phenomenon for people with intellectual disabilities to confuse the paid helpers in their lives with real friendships, and it is a great disservice to their personal development if this is ignored or encouraged. It's very tempting for a supporter of a person with an intellectual disability to say "I am your friend." But what if the person's role as a paid helper or program volunteer comes to an end. Will they still be friends?
Friendship is based on a mutual respect and equality. Although they should enjoy mutual respect, helpers and the people they are helping are not on an equal footing, and it is misleading to pretend otherwise.
We use the word "clients" mostly when dealing with an abstract context, such as the words on this web page. In reality, we simply refer to people by their given first name and last name, as appropriate. The term "participants" is commonly used as a plural description for individuals receiving support from LiveWorkPlay, because that is what the individuals in our programs told us they would like to be called - when their own name won't do.
|
|
Continue learning more about the organization:
|
Or switch to:
|
153 Chapel Street, Suite 300 | Ottawa, Ontario | K1N 1H5 | 613-235-9550
info@liveworkplay.ca | www.liveworkplay.ca
Charitable Registration 89622 2775 RR 0001
|
