Self Determination

A New Way Home, a personalised approach for leaving institutions. People with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour have continued to be placed in long-stay institutions, often a long way from home. New ‘placements’ of this kind have not always been avoided, and some people have not yet been afforded the opportunity to plan for their departure. This travel guide demonstrates tried and trusted methods for navigating the difficult road home. (The guide demonstrating how to avoid that difficult journey in the first place is perhaps for another day, though its outline can be discerned from the principles and practices described here.) But it also affords all of us, as concerned citizens, a set of principles, ideas and practices we can use to hold each other account in making sure these journeys are taken.

This registered report presents two studies that investigate the links between psychological flexibility, individual well-being, and relationship quality. This study explores the associations and potential overlap between psychological flexibility and the self-determination variables (i.e., impersonal, control, and autonomous orientations).

The paper begins with an examination of the evolution of self-determination. Second, it will attempt to demonstrate the manner in which self-determination has been interpreted through a brief analysis of United Nations (UN) documents relating to self-determination.

The central idea explored in this paper is Self-Directed Support. This is the term some of us use to describe a system of organising help so that the person who receives help is in control. This is not the reality for many people who receive state-funded assistance. Often the person does not control the help they receive, instead they are passive and support is often institutional in character. Self-Directed Support is about organising things so that people are not passive, instead they are active citizens, able to control the assistance they receive, in control of their own lives, and able to play an active part in community life.

The paper is written as a commentary  about the development of Independent Support Brokerage in the UK and also examines some of the practices, challenges and restrictions which have held people back and prevented them from realising their hopes and aspirations for a good life; and provides a simple lens which could be used as a basis for reviewing changes to policy and practice – enabling a real shift towards citizenship for all.