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'I know my body, I've lived in it all my life': Therapy, surgery and remediation experiences of young people with disabilities
Gillian Bricher
Philip Darbyshire
Department of Nursing and Midwifery Research and Practice Development, Children, Youth and Women's Health Service, University of South Australia; Flinders University, Adelaide SA
Abstract
Remedial surgery and other treatments are a common feature of disabled childhoods. These treatments are founded on notions of a normal/abnormal divide in which the task of health professionals is to bring such young people as close to societal concepts of normal as possible.
Working with new paradigm disability and childhood research young people who are growing up with a disability have been able to contribute to our understanding from their perspectives. The young people identify the physical, social and emotional implications of remediation and identify a personal cost/benefit ratio.
Questions of outcomes, definitions of success, and 'how much remediation is enough?' further complicate this. What may be perceived as a successful outcome by the health professional may not result in any functional gain for the young person. In discourses heavily influenced by health professional and parent perceptions the inclusion of the young people themselves contributes an additional dimension to our understanding.
Keywords
disability, young people, remediation, treatment outcomes, disability research, childhood research
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