This study aims at looking into result of the independent living process of people with severe disabilities and at developing the actual theory which explains the process and pattern related to independent living of people with severe disabilities. Th...
This study aims at looking into result of the independent living process of people with severe disabilities and at developing the actual theory which explains the process and pattern related to independent living of people with severe disabilities. The subject of this study, performed by applying to grounded theoretical method of Strauss and Corbin (1998), was “How is the independent living process of people with severe disabilities?”
The participants, 13 people with severe disabilities, were known to this author by the introduction of rehabilitation center for the disabled, the disabled group, independent living center, public officer in charge of social welfare, and participants in this study. They agreed with this author to participate in this study after listening to explains on aims and ways of this study. This study collected the materials through deepening interview investigation from Sep., 2012 to Oct., 2013 and analyzed them by applying the grounded theory approach’s procedures to Nvivo10. The results are as followings.
As a result of the analysis, this study drew, from open coding, 130 concepts, 41 sub-categories, and 16 categories. In addition, this study, from axial coding, analyzed the categories by paradigms. The condition on cause and effect in the independent living process of people with severe disabilities was ‘disconnection with the world due to disability’, and main phenomenon was ‘roaming in the marsh of separation’. The connectional conditions of this phenomena were ‘recognition in psychological withering’, ‘recognition in negative correlative relation with family’, and ‘social discrimination and recognition in prejudice’. Action/interaction to manage and perform the phenomena were ‘gain strength’, ‘living in communication’, and ‘confronting the world’. The conditions of intervention that enhanced action/ interaction strategy were ‘acceptance of disability’, ‘social support’, and ‘support in activity assistance service’. The results were ‘finding ‘myself’’, ‘finding social role and value’, ‘finding ‘life cycle’ of common people’, ‘regaining the meaning of life’, and ‘need for the independent living’. This study analyzed the process of participants’ independent living and found that it was composed of four stages such as stage of recognition, stage of confrontation, stage of self-awareness and challenge, and stage of value realization.
As for the stage of awareness, the disabled begin to separate from the world due to occurrence of disability. Disability begins due to illness and abrupt accident, and they are aware of separation from the world. So, they are aware of themselves in despair.
As for the stage of confrontation, the disabled roam in the marsh of separation. After they are aware of separation from the world, they begin to confront to the marsh of separation, writhing to escape from loneliness, depression, and living anguish, in circumstances surrounding them, that is, psychological withering, negative correlative relation with family, social discrimination and prejudice after recognizing separation from the world.
As for the stage of self-consciousness and challenge, the disable accepts their disability and challenge for independent living. They are aware that they have to accept their disabilities to escape from the marsh of separation. Afterwards, they gain power through social supports such as those from family, peers, religions, and regions, and assistance of disable activity assistance services, and make their efforts to live in communication, and challenge to live newly, coping with the world, escaping from the separation.
As for the stage of value realization, the last one of independent living, they aim at putting into practice and coming true what they can do. Participants, through the courses of self-consciousness and challenge, escape from the marsh of separation from the world, find independent ‘themselves’, social role and value, and ‘life cycle’ of the common people. In the end, they find again the meaning of life.
The core category of the independent living process of people with severe disabilities was ‘finding the meaning of life in the course of living like common people, escaping from the marsh of separation’. This study checked up the relationship among categories, appearing continuously, centering on core categories, and found that the patterns of independent living process of people with severe disabilities were three ones such as the pattern of individual-oriented development, the pattern of accepting and adapting to the reality, and the pattern of relationship-oriented takeoff.
‘The pattern of individual-oriented development’ was separated from the world seriously due to disability. They were abandoned by, controlled by, and estranged from the society and family. So, they roamed in the deep marsh of separation for a long time. But they used a strategy having a strong development will to live, making their own strength positively, communicating with society, and coping with the world.
‘The pattern of accepting and adapting to the reality’ was weak in separation from the world due to disability. They were weak in the degree of withering. The recognition in mutual relation with family was very affirmative and strong. Social support was positive and strong. The participants of this pattern accepted and adapted to reality than other patterns. So, they were negative in finding the meaning of life, escaping from separation. But, on using the disabled activity assistance services, they were independent in living, finding themselves to be subjective and doing something by themselves, rather than depending on family or society.
‘The Pattern of relationship-oriented takeoff’ laid an emphasis on the relation with neighboring circumstances and prepared for the future with clear aims through positive interaction, dreaming takeoff. They established the basis which could accept them, pursuing ability recognition in the relation with people, thought of the meaning of independent existence, and confronted to the reality positively and took off endlessly to the dream, escaping from the marsh of separation and finding the meaning of life.
As mentioned above, the independent living process of people with severe disabilities from the course, ‘they found again the meaning of life in the course of living with the common people, escaping from the marsh of separation.’
On the basis of the results, this study suggested discussion, and some inclusions and proposes in the departments of theory, practices, and policies. The suggestions in the department of policy at the levels of respective persons, family, regional society, and nation are as followings.
First, at the private level, the empowerment for people with severe disabilities is indispensible. In addition, legal basis is indispensible to reinforce users’ liabilities.
Second, at the level of family, regional society, the disabled must be recognized to be a human being as a family, not an object to be rejected in a family. So, social services and the project for development and assistance appropriate to and life-span period are indispensible to decrease negative mental sensation. In addition, the disabled-style improved education is indispensible for empathy, also a network is indispensible on the basis of respecting a variety of supporters in regional society.
Third, at the level of a nation, it is necessary to increase wage level by reflecting the disabled’s desire, to actualize service delivery system, centering on customers, so that they can wield their rights to participate in and select service process, and, concerning on the user’s fee of disabled activity assistance, to calculate the share of payment by private income, not by house income. In addition, it is necessary to reinforce professionalism of service organization monitoring and nurture education for activity assistors, to change the financial resource system of flexible disabled activity assistance institute, appropriate to regional financial independence degree, and to construct affirmative cooperation relationship between service giver and users.