Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 37

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY AND ILLNESS: THE CASE OF COMMUNITY CARE IN GROUP HOMES

Anna Altukhova
European University at St Petersburg
6/1А Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
aaltukhova()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: In the framework of the modern biomedical system “mental retardation” is viewed as a “chronic illness” that commonly leads to disability status. Various aspects of the life and behavior of a person with an intellectual disability, including his/her state of health, are interpreted by others through the prism of his/her diagnosis. This article is devoted to problems of diagnosing “acute” illnesses and their treatment in community care projects in group homes — a new form of life organization for people with disabilities. These projects which emerged as an alternative to stated long-run residential institutions for people with mental disabilities (the so-called “psychoneurological” asylums) object to the medical approach to people with mental retardation typical for state social services. The staff of these projects follows the “demedicalization” and “normalization” ideologies towards disabilities and how such perspectives affect the way different cases of illnesses are interpreted and treated among residents. However, materials discussed in this article imply that normalization in the Russian context does not always lead to the demedicalization of the clients and their basic psychiatric diagnosis continues to serve as a frame for interpreting symptoms of any other illnesses they might experience. At the same time, in these community care projects, we could observe explanatory systems alternative to the biomedical model, including specific views of their health, symptoms and effective treatment represented by the residents themselves. The residents struggle to achieve equal rights with staff members to interpret their own state of health and bring in appropriate measures.

Keywords: mental retardation, intellectual disability, chronic illness, normalization, demedicalization, community care.

To cite: Altukhova A., ‘Intellektualnaya invalidnost i bolezn v usloviyakh soprovozhdaemogo prozhivaniya’ [Intellectual Disability and Illness: The Case of Community Care in Group Homes], Antropologicheskij forum, 2018, no. 37, pp. 123–150.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2018-14-37-123-150

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/037/altukhova.pdf