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Work capacity assessments and efforts to achieve a job match for claimants in a social security setting: an international inventory

SENGERS, Johan H
AMBA, Femke I
BROUWER, Sandra
STAHL, Christian
2020

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Purpose: Many high-income countries are witnessing a shift of focus on eligibility for disability benefits towards promotion of work reintegration. However, little is known about how countries assess work cap- acity, and how a job match is then obtained. The current study aims to compare work capacity assess- ments and available efforts to achieve a job match in eight high-income OECD countries.

 

Methods: A survey was conducted among key stakeholders concerning organization of work capacity assessments in social security settings, and efforts made to obtain a job, across eight OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

 

Results: In most countries, work capacity is assessed at several time points, with variations in moments and in information used for job matching. In countries obtaining information on personal and work levels, the search to find a job match usually begins with the persons who have disabilities.

 

Conclusion: Although a shift towards a holistic focus in work capacity assessment has been recognized, medical factors still prevail. Limited emphasis is placed on the implications of functional limitations for the possibilities of work. A holistic approach to assessment needs to be coupled with holistic support measures through provision of coordinated and high quality job matching services.

Loneliness in life stories by people with disabilities

TARVAINEN, Merja
2020

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This study investigates loneliness in life stories by people with disabilities. By approaching loneliness from a relational perspective, this study attempts to illustrate how loneliness and disability are intertwined in the life course. The research question was as follows: How do people with disabilities understand loneliness in their life stories? Life story data ‘Life of Disabled Persons in Finland 2013–2014’ was analysed with a narrative life course approach. Loneliness was narrated in accordance with normative life course expectations. People with disabilities narrated loneliness as unbelonging in childhood, disjointed youth and disaffiliation to normative institutions in adulthood. This study suggests that relation between loneliness and disability concern the conditions of inclusion that is the conditions of living and telling.

  • Loneliness involves both unwanted emotions and social isolation. 
  • In many societies, both loneliness and disability bear a stigma. This so-called double stigma affects the lives of people with disabilities.
  • This study explores loneliness and disability in life stories by people with disabilities in Finland from a life course perspective. Although scholars have widely studied loneliness in Finland, they have not studied loneliness in people with disabilities in any great depth.
  • Loneliness in life stories by people with disabilities was narrated in relation to a sense of bodily difference and occurred as a disconnection from a socially ‘standard’ life course. Loneliness was located within three main phases: childhood, youth and adulthood. Negative attitudes towards disability feed social isolation and emotional loneliness.
  • Further research on disability and loneliness throughout the life course as well as more discussion about the conditions of inclusion and the emotional patterns of social relations are needed.

‘Everyone needs love’ – an interview study about perceptions of love in people with intellectual disability (ID)

MATTILA, Jenni
MÄÄTTÄ, Kaarina
UUSIAUTTI, Satu
2016

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How do people with intellectual disability (ID) perceive love and its role in their lives? The purpose of this study was to give voice to people with ID themselves and provide information about their needs for love. The study analysed how seven Finnish young adults with mild ID (5 women and 2 men) aged between 18 and 31 years described love and the meaning of love in their lives in semi-structured, qualitative theme interviews. The analysis was theory-led content analysis. The findings showed that the young adults with ID could describe love primarily as emotions and concrete acts, but perceived love as knowledge and skills more difficult to describe. However, the meaning of love was considered crucial and important for everyone’s well-being. The study suggests that the views and opinions of people with ID should be given more attention so that the support and guidance they are given would better need their needs. In addition, the study highlights everyone’s right to love? As per the style. Please suggest.

Do reading disabilities explain the increase of depressive symptoms in late adolescence?

HAVERINEN, Kaisa
SAVOLAINEN, Hannu
HOLOPAINEN, Leena
2014

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The present study examined how depressive symptoms change in late adolescence and whether reading disabilities (RD) affect the level or change of the symptoms. The sample consisted of 293 Finnish adolescents (150 girls, 143 boys; 58 with RD). Participants completed a screening test for reading and spelling skills in ninth grade (age 15), and a depression screening test three times during upper secondary education (ages 16–18). Longitudinal data were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA. Adolescents’ self-reported level of depressive symptoms increased in late adolescence ( p , 0.001). RD did not directly affect the level or change of depressive symptoms. Girls reported a greater increase in depressive symptoms than boys, and this interaction effect held especially for girls with RD.

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