Job opportunities! Posts are open to all applicants, but under exemptions under the Equality Act 2010, priority will be given to those applicants who are autistic and with relevant skills.

Last chance to sign up! DRF 19th April. 10am-Noon. Fran Urbistondo Cano and Holly Burkinshaw will be speaking about “Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care” and “Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation”

To register: https://forms.office.com/e/aSWDu7NeER

Talk 1, Title: Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care

Talk 1, Abstract:

Adults labelled as ‘having autism and learning disabilities’ in
England receive the support of the social care system through the
assistance of paid staff called ‘care and support workers’ or
‘personal assistants’. The market offers different kinds of training
for care staff, such as Active Support, Person-centred Thinking and
Planning, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), Low Arousal Approach, and
the SPELL framework. In my presentation, I will share some ideas and
reflections on an ecological perspective of social care, highlighting
key characteristics of available training and approaches, and invite a
shift from what in social care is traditionally called
‘person-centred’, to what I refer to as a ‘relationship-centred
approach’. As a systemically oriented Counselling Psychologist, I will
explain how I developed a model to engage with support workers.
Adopting a fiction-based approach, I will illustrate the complexities
of such work involving personal, professional, and socio-cultural
perspectives. The examples portray common scenarios from practice that
many care workers might find familiar. Finally, this presentation is
based on my inquiry conducted for a Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice which focused on autism and LD in the context of social care.
The inquiry contributes learning to professional support for autistics
with learning disabilities by inviting examination of personal and
professional experiences, stimulating professional debate, and
generating knowledge about working alongside care workers and people
who use services from a dialogical, relational, and social
constructionist stance.

Bio
Dr Fran Urbistondo Cano is a systemically-oriented Counselling
Psychologist originally from Argentina. He works with people labelled
as having autism and learning disabilities in social care, the NHS,
and the forensic system in England. Fran is also a course tutor and
research supervisor for the Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice at the University of Bedfordshire. His research is on the
deconstruction of psychological narratives about people with learning
disabilities and autism and promoting a relational model for social
care.

Contact
francisco.urbistondocano@beds.ac.uk

Keywords:
Autism, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, social care,
care workers, support workers, training, person-centred,
relationship-centred, systemic, relational, dialogical, fiction-based
research.

Talk 2, Title: Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation

Talk 2, Abstract:

This presentation reports on a qualitative study that was conducted for a PhD thesis. The research was concerned with the experiences of long term or regularly hospitalised children and young people. The study involved the recruitment of six participants to explore the research question: what we can learn from the stories that people choose to share about their experiences of hospitalisation. While much has been improved in relation to children’s hospitals and the care that children receive, there is significant concern in literature and policy alike for children aged between 11-16 years old. This thesis attends to some of these concerns. Several disciplines have contributed to the understanding of children in hospital, including psychology, sociology, childhood studies, disabled children’s childhood studies, critical disability studies, nursing, and medicine. The study grounds itself in disabled children’s childhood studies (Curran et al. 2013) and utilises poststructuralist thought and concepts of spatiality to explore the multi-modal data. Developing a cross methodological approach, the study develops and employs a narrative-autoethnographic approach to research methodology. It exploits the richness of different modes of storytelling to situate the researcher’s stories alongside those of participants in the study. I move on to discuss how young people in the hospital had an idea of the way that they were perceived by others, which they found limiting and oppressive. A strong theme which emerged from the data was that of not feeling heard or being misunderstood whilst in hospital; this theme is explored in the study in relation to power. The theme of fear, despite dominating medical literature, came through more subtly highlighting a need to better understand children and young people’s fears, as well as how important the mundane was for young people. This study identified a need to continuously problematise notions of normalcy, especially in terms of children’s communication. It identifies an urgent need to develop ways of multi-modal listening to young people in hospital, and thus has implications for policy, practice, research and theory, respectively. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of non-verbal communication employed by many young people, whilst also reflecting on how we can better hear young people’s communication.

DRF Event 6! – Final one this academic year! April 19th, 10am – Noon. Fran Urbistondo Cano and Holly Burkinshaw will be speaking about “Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care” and “Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation”

To register: https://forms.office.com/e/aSWDu7NeER

Talk 1, Title: Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care

Talk 1, Abstract:

Adults labelled as ‘having autism and learning disabilities’ in
England receive the support of the social care system through the
assistance of paid staff called ‘care and support workers’ or
‘personal assistants’. The market offers different kinds of training
for care staff, such as Active Support, Person-centred Thinking and
Planning, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), Low Arousal Approach, and
the SPELL framework. In my presentation, I will share some ideas and
reflections on an ecological perspective of social care, highlighting
key characteristics of available training and approaches, and invite a
shift from what in social care is traditionally called
‘person-centred’, to what I refer to as a ‘relationship-centred
approach’. As a systemically oriented Counselling Psychologist, I will
explain how I developed a model to engage with support workers.
Adopting a fiction-based approach, I will illustrate the complexities
of such work involving personal, professional, and socio-cultural
perspectives. The examples portray common scenarios from practice that
many care workers might find familiar. Finally, this presentation is
based on my inquiry conducted for a Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice which focused on autism and LD in the context of social care.
The inquiry contributes learning to professional support for autistics
with learning disabilities by inviting examination of personal and
professional experiences, stimulating professional debate, and
generating knowledge about working alongside care workers and people
who use services from a dialogical, relational, and social
constructionist stance.

Bio
Dr Fran Urbistondo Cano is a systemically-oriented Counselling
Psychologist originally from Argentina. He works with people labelled
as having autism and learning disabilities in social care, the NHS,
and the forensic system in England. Fran is also a course tutor and
research supervisor for the Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice at the University of Bedfordshire. His research is on the
deconstruction of psychological narratives about people with learning
disabilities and autism and promoting a relational model for social
care.

Contact
francisco.urbistondocano@beds.ac.uk

Keywords:
Autism, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, social care,
care workers, support workers, training, person-centred,
relationship-centred, systemic, relational, dialogical, fiction-based
research.

Talk 2, Title: Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation

Talk 2, Abstract:

This presentation reports on a qualitative study that was conducted for a PhD thesis. The research was concerned with the experiences of long term or regularly hospitalised children and young people. The study involved the recruitment of six participants to explore the research question: what we can learn from the stories that people choose to share about their experiences of hospitalisation. While much has been improved in relation to children’s hospitals and the care that children receive, there is significant concern in literature and policy alike for children aged between 11-16 years old. This thesis attends to some of these concerns. Several disciplines have contributed to the understanding of children in hospital, including psychology, sociology, childhood studies, disabled children’s childhood studies, critical disability studies, nursing, and medicine. The study grounds itself in disabled children’s childhood studies (Curran et al. 2013) and utilises poststructuralist thought and concepts of spatiality to explore the multi-modal data. Developing a cross methodological approach, the study develops and employs a narrative-autoethnographic approach to research methodology. It exploits the richness of different modes of storytelling to situate the researcher’s stories alongside those of participants in the study. I move on to discuss how young people in the hospital had an idea of the way that they were perceived by others, which they found limiting and oppressive. A strong theme which emerged from the data was that of not feeling heard or being misunderstood whilst in hospital; this theme is explored in the study in relation to power. The theme of fear, despite dominating medical literature, came through more subtly highlighting a need to better understand children and young people’s fears, as well as how important the mundane was for young people. This study identified a need to continuously problematise notions of normalcy, especially in terms of children’s communication. It identifies an urgent need to develop ways of multi-modal listening to young people in hospital, and thus has implications for policy, practice, research and theory, respectively. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of non-verbal communication employed by many young people, whilst also reflecting on how we can better hear young people’s communication.