Creating home in community : the social construction of normalization
Date
1998
Authors
Drummond, Brenda Lee
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Abstract
Deinstitutionalization of adults with mental disabilities has been occurring for years but was accelerated in British Columbia in the 1980's. Government policy on deinstitutionalization has led to the development of community living alternatives such as group homes. This thesis is an exploration of the social construction of normalization in group homes for adults with mental disabilities. Data from group home managers' work is used to explicate the social relations in their work through the constructivist methodology of institutional ethnography. The study analyses data from written policies and documents of the Ministry of Social Services and working documents of managers. The study explores how group home managers' competent managerial practice may accomplish 'normalization' but still leave something to be desired in the lives of both residents and managers.
It is argued that normalization in group homes following the Ministry of Social Services policy guidelines and official plans is constructed ideologically by managers in concert with other staff. Managers may feel dissatisfied with their efforts to normalize residents' lives, but managers carry out their work without understanding how their accountability practices are creating problems for them. Although successful as competent administrators, the discursive approach taken to policy implementation leaves managers (and staff) of group homes holding the bag for actual normalization and integration for adults with mental disabilities. Where real barriers exist, they may never appear in the socially constructed accounts that managers generate.