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Disability Resilience NetworkResilience - turning concepts into
tools, products and services The fourth presentation
Philip J Connolly
RNIB
The presentations so far
• Changing the storyline, disability led recovery and the purple pound - 19/0711
• Resilience an introduction - at the launch of the network on 19/09/11
• Resilience: Going beyond an introduction
on 17/1/12• Concepts into tools, products and services - 13/6/12
A reminder of useful definitionsof resilience
• The magnitude of disturbance that can be absorbed before the system changes its structure by changing the variables and processes that control behaviour (Gunnderson and Holling, 2002)
• The capacity of a system to experience shocks while retaining essentially the same structure, function, feedback and therefore identity (Walker et al, 2006)
An example of resilience in practice - learning difficulties
• Barbara Arrowsmith-Young
• Left occipital temporal parietal region dysfunction
• Told she had a mental block - affected reasoning
• "The woman who changed her brain" 2012
"The brain can be changed" - Neuroplasticity
• Arrowsmith-Young was inspired by Rosenzweig's rats and Luria's account of Zatzensky's recovery
• devised exercises to change her brain's functioning
• She taught herself how to reason starting with telling the time
Changing the focus from breaking down the tasks to learning
Her success
• Arrowsmith-Young founded a school in 1980• She now has 35 schools under licence in the US
and Canada• Effective in 19 distinct cognitive functions
essential for reading, writing, maths, general comprehension, logical reasoning, visual memory or auditory processing
• Dream for every child from five or six to undertake some cognitive work
Translating resilience thinking into tools, products and servicesTools• that allow for appraisal of risk• the development of contingencies or options• offer social structures of personal support• provide spaces that serve a multiplicity of uses• that are multi-functional in application• that promote systems that put the person back in
charge of their situation
Some proposed tools
1) an accessible wiki-reader
2) the "Resilient Are We" social media site
3) an annual anthology of personal testimony describing successful belief systems that aid adaptation and coping
4) a third sector currency to fund care, support and employment initiatives beyond state provision
5) a disability version of appropedia
A brief tour through the possible tools
A wiki reader has the whole of wikipedia on it - why not an how to "pedia" for disabled people and why not text to speech for blind people?
"Resilient Are We"
• Inspired by Tumblr• Encouraged by the
success of Martin Lewis's save money website
• Resilient Are We would be a social media presence whereby people could up load their video or audio diaries of the adaptations or coping strategies developed in response to their disability
Resilient Are We • Purpose
• 1) to promote self development through peer to peer support networks
• 2) to facilitate the formation of support groups e.g. around mentoring for a job, access to new treatments, challenging inaccessible practices etc
• 3) to enable people to connect and self-organise
Expertise sought and offered
• Website design
• Website accessibility
• Digital marketing
• Audio and Video production
• Fundraising bid writing
• Intellectual copyright
• Content sourcing
"You've got to fulfil the book" - Bob Marley
• At present there is no book for newly diagnosed disabled people or their carers or families to support their process of finding a adaptation or coping strategies in response to their impairment
Chicken soup for disability resilience
• Could we produce an annually updated book building upon successful and documented psychology and based upon stories written by disabled people?
• Could this be made available at the point of diagnosis or statutory care service interventions?
• Could we use www.lulu.com to test the market for it?
Money becoming scarce• In 2010 the Government announced over 18
billion of cuts to the welfare budget• In 2012 a further £10 billion of cuts have been
stated as being necessary• Incomes are falling as benefits and wages are
being outstripped by inflation• The numbers of newly diagnosed disabled people
are growing as the baby boom generation nears retirement
• Whilst needing to press Government for resources what is the appropriate response if the Government withdraws from its historic obligations
A third sector currency?
• Fureai Kippu to fund social care• Doraland to cover education costs• C3 a Business to business currency• Natural savings - to conserve forests• Terra a global B2B currency to promote long
term investment
There are amny successful complementary currencies why not a third sector currency to promote social care and employment?
A disability version of Appropedia?
• Appropedia is a website based collaboration to solve problems of sustainability
• In partnership with the University of Michigan it hosts a global medical health deice compendium
• Why not a disability version?
Appropedia runs on the software mediawiki and hosts 14,000 articles
The future is already here but who will write it?
• Us• But in partnership• In collaboration• In compassion• With fairness
