Quality Of Life Application To Persons With Disabilities

Volume II focuses on how the concepts and research on quality of life can be applied to people with mental retardation.

This book contains a series of articles, written by international experts in the fields of intellectual disability and quality of life, that explore a broad range of issues that impact on the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The book commences with a general discussion on defining quality of life and family quality of life and the appropriateness of using these constructs in the field of intellectual disability, and is followed by an analysis on the effects of living arrangements and employment on quality of life. The book concludes with discussions on the unique issues facing children with intellectual disabilities and people living in developing countries and the effect these issues have upon their quality of life.

The authors apply ideas about quality of life to the field of disability to assist front-line professionals, managers and policy-makers in effective service provision. They examine the historical context of the concept of quality of life and discuss the application of quality of life in the daily lives of people who have disabilities.

Studio della qualità della vita in diverse culture nel campo delle disabilità cognitive.

This study brings together two important literatures together in the one volume. One concerns the role of quality assessments in social policy, especially health policy. The second concerns ethical and social issues raised by prenatal testing for disability. Hitherto, these two literatures have had little contact with each other: few scholars have written about both, or have compared the two domains in a systematic way, while people with disabilities and disability scholars are underrepresented in recent discussion on health policy and quality of assessment. This book turns the perspectives of disability scholars on issues that have largely been the province of health methodology, policy and philosophy, while angling philosophical policy analysis on problems that have largely been the province of disability scholarship. This volume will be sought after by bioethicists, philosophers, and specialists in disability studies and healthcare economics.

Interest in quality of life has increased considerably over recent years and is now making considerable impact amongst all practitioners concerned with people with disabilities. This book looks critically at the concepts, assessment and practice as they relate to quality of life issues in many fields of disability. The issues for professional training and practice are evaluated and the benefits of involvement in creative activities are examined. Vocational, social and leisure implications for quality of life considerations are also explored in a number of chapters. Case studies and examples are used throughout the book to make this edition accessible and of real practical use to all those working with people with disabilities.

The concepts of quality of life and personal outcomes -- Quality domains and indicators -- Measuring personal outcomes: an information collection process -- Managerial strategies: opening the doors inward -- Personal outcome measures: values and metrics for an integrated management system -- Rationale for systems-level performance indicators that reflect personal outcomes -- Considerations in developing performance indicators at the macro level -- How do I use performance indicator data? -- Reframing quality and rethinking quality improvement -- Emerging challenges and opportunities.

The book is unique in two distinct ways. First, it focuses on improving quality of life in contrast to other books that have tended to focus more on its conceptualization and assessment. Second, it deals with improving quality of life in a variety of disabled populations, not just one, and includes chapters on people with chronic mental or physical conditions and those without disabilities at all (i.e. so-called normal people). The book outlines some of the challenges and controversies in the quality-of-life domain and attempts to synthesize the key issue and to draw generalizable conclusions. The book is mainly for university students and faculty and practitioners from various disciplines working in the field. It will also interest those members of the general public who wish to improve their own quality of life or that of their relatives or friends.