Požiūris į žmogų su proto negalia: lyginamoji analizė

Abstract

Summary After its Independence, Lithuania has witnessed to a considerable number of positive changes in the sphere of integration of the disabled. Still, the current situation of the disabled in Lithuania could be called paradoxical. It has reached a critical point and demands radical solutions. On the one hand, the attention and tolerance of the society towards the disabled have been augmenting; on the other hand, the care for the disabled is becoming declaratory. The main and the greatest obstacle for the integration of the disabled into society is a negative attitude towards them; while, on the contrary, a positive attitude is one of the crucial conditions for succesful integration. Although nowadays media has been showing a greater interest in the life of the disabled, the great part of society regards people with a handicap as those who have to live and work seperately. An attitude of traditional segregation of the disabled is disappearing very slowly. People with mental disability are still welcomed with an especially unfavourable attitude. Thus the object of the survey of the diploma – is an attitude towards people with mental disability; and the aim of this work – is to reveal an expression of an affirmative/optimistic attitude towards people with a mental handicap in daily social interaction. Survey tasks 1. To examine and evaluate the attitude of the workers of the day-care center towards people with mental disability; 2. To reveal how the workers manage to render services to people with a mental handicap without undermining their worth and human dignity; 3. To evaluate the spread of an attitude towards people with mental disability in the documents. In order to attain the goal and fulfill the tasks, the principle of triangulation has been used, and the following methods have been chosen as the most suitable: a) an in-depth interview with the workers of the day-care centers, b) the observation of social interaction of the people with a mental handicap towards other people by participation, c) the analysis of the documents that regulate the activities and priorities of the day-care center. The work consists of two parts: the revelation of the significance of an attitude in the process of integration of a disabled person, and the evaluation of both the attitude towards people with a mental handicap and of the expression of this attitude through daily activity. The main conclusions of the survey: 4. Factors that influence an affirmative/optimistic attitude: personal values (the feel of human worth, dignity and meaningfulness; the principles of respect for a person and his/her rights; equivalence and equality); also, positive experience and discoveries through the communion with the disabled. 5. In certain cases, an afffirmative/optimistic attitude towards people with a mental handicap was insufficient. A tendency to reject the other because of his/her disability has been noticed (the question of the right to take one‘s life; the proclaimed attitudes towards the most complicated disabled people). 6. It is not always possible to implement an affirmative attitude towards the disabled in practice. The obstacles are these: human weakness, weariness, a rather heavy physical and emotional load placed upon a worker, certain aspects of temperament, lack of personal values so necessary for a worker, a poor knowledge of the disability, as a clinical phenomenon, of a disabled person. These obstacles arouse inadequate reactions of a worker towards an inpropriate behaviour of a disabled person. Key words: attitude, an affirmative/optimistic attitude and a negative/pesimistic attitude, disability, mental disability/disordered intelect, a person with a mental handicap/a disabled person, disability, integration.