This comprehensive volume provides the knowledge and skills that mental health professionals need for more effective, informed work with clients with disabilities. Combining her extensive knowledge as a clinician, researcher, and teacher with her personal experience as someone with a disability, Olkin provides an insider's perspective on critical issues that are often overlooked in training. A lucid conceptual framework is presented for understanding disability as a minority experience, one that is structured by social, legal, and attitudinal constraints as well as physical challenges. Illuminating frequently encountered psychosocial themes and concerns, chapters describe a range of approaches to dealing with disability issues in the treatment of adults, children, and families. Topics addressed include etiquette with clients with disabilities; special concerns in assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis; the impact of disability on sexuality and romance, as well as pregnancy, birthing, and parenting; the use of assistive technology and devices; disability and substance abuse; and more. Filled with clinical examples and observations, the volume also discusses strategies for enhancing teaching, training, and research.

Clinicians outside of rehabilitation psychology do not receive training on how to work with clients with disabilities. Nonetheless, given that people with disabilities comprise over 15% of the population, virtually all clinicians will have clients with disabilities in their practice. Without education or training in disability, clinicians are prone to make errors in estimating the role of disability in the presenting problems and the case formulation. Disability-Affirmative Therapy (D-AT) helps clinicians put the disability of a client into proper focus, without making one of the usual mistakes associated with cross-cultural therapy: overinflating the role of the disability, or underestimating its profound effects. D-AT provides a template for evaluation - nine areas to be discussed with the client - that allows understanding of the client's lifetime experiences with disability. The template is not a theory of therapy, but an overlay onto the therapist's own approach, thus having broad appeal and utility. D-AT is a positive and affirming approach to therapy with clients with disabilities, regardless of the theory of therapy used. The book contains many vignettes to illustrate key points and an extended case example to which the D-AT template is applied. Grounded in social and clinical psychology research, this book will be an important and unique guide to all clinicians working with clients with disabilities and their families.

The realities surrounding the psychological experience of disability, plus the intervention techniques used to resolve some of the problems, have changed dramatically since the publication of the first edition of this classic text. This revised edition describes changes that have come out of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as technological advances, new legislation, and evolving health care systems. It addresses the growing interest in racial and ethnic diversity, and includes an exploration of spirituality and disability, as well as a look at new partnerships, such as within the community, that have developed.

This book takes a nonpathological approach to disability, viewing it as part of diversity rather than as deficit. The opening chapters introduce basic knowledge of teaching in disability communities, covering attitudes and behaviors that may be difficult for instructors to relate to. Next, the book delves into the three activities sections that increase in difficulty over the course of the book. The activities highlight barriers and psychosocial impediments that hamper progress in disability communities. Designed by an expert educator and clinician who is also an insider in the disability community, each of the 34 activities translate well in classroom environments or as homework, and each can be done individually or in group settings. All activities include a list of required materials, time expectation, goal setting criteria, possible outcomes, and talking and debriefing points for reflection, thereby facilitating effective planning and execution. The activities also recommend possible modifications to adjust the difficulty of the activities. This flexibility makes this a valuable resource for a wider audience of expertise and settings, ranging from introductory to sophisticated readers and users, students and non-students, in classrooms, in workshops, or in other surroundings. Lastly, the book concludes with a chapter on accessing outcomes, with six measures for evaluating knowledge and skill. Teaching Disability is a well-rounded, highly applicable tool for instructors and students in the disability community.

The Cambridge Handbook of Applied Psychological Ethics is a valuable resource for psychologists and graduate students hoping to further develop their ethical decision making beyond more introductory ethics texts. The book offers real-world ethical vignettes and considerations. Chapters cover a wide range of practice settings, populations, and topics, and are written by scholars in these settings. Chapters focus on the application of ethics to the ethical dilemmas in which mental health and other psychology professionals sometimes find themselves. Each chapter introduces a setting and gives readers a brief understanding of some of the potential ethical issues at hand, before delving deeper into the multiple ethical issues that must be addressed and the ethical principles and standards involved. No other book on the market captures the breadth of ethical issues found in daily practice and focuses entirely on applied ethics in psychology.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Disability as Diversity: Developing Cultural Competence reveals why disability is a cultural experience, rather than merely a medical status. Conceptual models of disability have evolved into a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon that disability service providers must understand to fully appreciate the intricacy of the lives of the people they serve. In this volume, Andrews sets the stage with the must-know history of disability rights and the social and cultural evolution of disabled people in the United States. She presents important concepts about attitudes toward disability and the impact of ableism. Andrews illustrates that not only are negative attitudes harmful, but that overly positive stereotypes can have an equally detrimental effect on disabled people. The reader will learn about disability microaggressions and how attempts to improve disability awareness can be misguided. Andrews argues that there is a distinct disability culture, and introduces the reader to its characteristics and features. She explores the concept of disability identity development, and how some people with disabilities identify readily as disabled and embrace the disability community, while others do not view themselves as disabled even though they meet commonly accepted criteria for disability. Andrews delves into the intricacies and controversies of disability language, including person-first and identity-first language. The reader will gain enhanced knowledge and skills to provide culturally competent care to individuals, as well as methods to enrich cultural humility at the organizational level. Andrews offers readers a guide to disability-related considerations for psychological testing and assessment and the role of universal design. Readers will learn about specific considerations for intervention with children and adults with disabilities, including how to tailor intervention approaches, clinician attitudes, and the use of evidence based treatments. Researchers will find a thorough exploration of the challenges inherent in disability research, the importance of full consumer inclusion, and future directions to reduce health disparities based on disability. This book offers practical suggestions for clinicians and researchers who work with people with disabilities in order to be culturally effective in all aspects of assessment, intervention, and scientific inquiry.

Intellectual Disability and Psychotherapy: The Theories, Practice and Influence of Valerie Sinason charts the transformative impact of the noted psychotherapist’s work with children and adults with intellectual disabilities upon both a generation of clinicians and the treatment and services delivered by them. Examining how contemporary Disability Therapists have discovered, used and adapted such pioneering concepts as the Handicapped Smile and Secondary Handicap as a Defence Against Trauma in their clinical work, the book includes contributions from renowned practitioners and clinicians from around the world. It shines a light on how Sinason’s work opened doors for working with people who were previously thought of as unreachable. Intellectual Disability and Psychotherapy will be an essential resource to anyone working with children or adults with disabilities, as well as psychotherapists interested in exploring Valerie Sinason’s work.

The successful integration of psychological factors into the management of physical disabilities is critical to successful health-care delivery. This book provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the best practice and approaches in this field. Paul Kennedy brings together contributions from a range of experienced researchers and practitioners, who explore the emotional, motivational and psychological factors associated with the rehabilitation and treatment of people with a range of physical disabilities, including spinal cord injury, stroke, and chronic pain. The book is divided into three sections, covering: the scope of psychological processes in physical rehabilitation psychological applications and practitioner perspectives general organizational challenges and developments. The Psychological Management of Physical Disabilities will be of great interest to all clinical psychologists, health psychologists, occupational therapists, counsellors, physiotherapists, physicians and rehabilitation nurses. Service providers know how important psychological factors are. This book explains why and how psychological models and research can support rehabilitation and improve individual well-being.