{"title":"Comparison, othering, and surveillance: Foucauldian discourse analysis of peer support in visual impairment rehabilitation services in South Africa.","authors":"Michelle Botha, Brian Watermeyer","doi":"10.1037/rep0000565","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Peer support has been identified as an important aspect of rehabilitation for visually impaired adults. However, there is a limited exploration in rehabilitation studies literature of the identity-related impact of these interventions, both at an individual and collective level. Through attending to the discourses on blindness, well-being, and social inclusion that circulate in organization cultures, this article considers the role that peer support plays in forming \"blind communities\" with particular characteristics, and what these communities might model about life with blindness, both to newly blind persons and to society.</p><p><strong>Research method: </strong>Foucauldian discourse analysis was conducted on semi-structured interviews with 18 visual impairment rehabilitation service users and eight rehabilitation practitioners at four organizations providing services in the Western Cape, South Africa.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Formal peer support is lacking in the sampled organizations, suggesting that relational aspects are not a priority in rehabilitation practice. The formal and informal peer support that does exist in these services is shadowed by largely negative sociocultural beliefs about blindness. Participants described a culture of comparison, othering, and surveillance within which, the article suggests, they are unable to explore and embrace authentic and positive blind identities. This has implications for both individual and collective empowerment.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Greater attention must be paid to both rehabilitation practitioner training and the design and implementation of rehabilitation services to the identity-level impact of rehabilitation. This is essential to develop services that promote individual and collective empowerment and that respond to the multilayered practical, social, and psychoemotional needs of blind adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":47974,"journal":{"name":"Rehabilitation Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Rehabilitation Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000565","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: Peer support has been identified as an important aspect of rehabilitation for visually impaired adults. However, there is a limited exploration in rehabilitation studies literature of the identity-related impact of these interventions, both at an individual and collective level. Through attending to the discourses on blindness, well-being, and social inclusion that circulate in organization cultures, this article considers the role that peer support plays in forming "blind communities" with particular characteristics, and what these communities might model about life with blindness, both to newly blind persons and to society.
Research method: Foucauldian discourse analysis was conducted on semi-structured interviews with 18 visual impairment rehabilitation service users and eight rehabilitation practitioners at four organizations providing services in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Results: Formal peer support is lacking in the sampled organizations, suggesting that relational aspects are not a priority in rehabilitation practice. The formal and informal peer support that does exist in these services is shadowed by largely negative sociocultural beliefs about blindness. Participants described a culture of comparison, othering, and surveillance within which, the article suggests, they are unable to explore and embrace authentic and positive blind identities. This has implications for both individual and collective empowerment.
Conclusions: Greater attention must be paid to both rehabilitation practitioner training and the design and implementation of rehabilitation services to the identity-level impact of rehabilitation. This is essential to develop services that promote individual and collective empowerment and that respond to the multilayered practical, social, and psychoemotional needs of blind adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
目的：同伴支持被认为是视障成人康复的一个重要方面。然而，康复研究文献对这些干预措施在个人和集体层面上与身份相关的影响的探讨十分有限。通过关注组织文化中流传的关于失明、福祉和社会包容的论述，本文探讨了同伴支持在形成具有特殊性的 "盲人社区 "中所扮演的角色，以及这些社区可能为新盲人和社会树立的失明生活典范：研究方法：对南非西开普省四个服务机构的 18 名视力障碍康复服务使用者和 8 名康复从业人员进行了半结构化访谈，并进行了福柯话语分析：结果：在抽样调查的机构中缺乏正式的同伴支持，这表明关系方面在康复实践中并不是优先事项。这些服务机构中确实存在的正式和非正式同伴支持，却被对失明的负面社会文化观念所掩盖。参与者描述了一种比较、他化和监视的文化，文章认为，在这种文化中，他们无法探索和接受真实、积极的盲人身份。这对个人和集体赋权都有影响：康复从业人员的培训以及康复服务的设计和实施都必须更加关注康复在身份层面的影响。这对于发展促进个人和集体赋权的服务，以及满足成年盲人多层次的实际、社会和心理情感需求至关重要。(PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)。
期刊介绍：
Rehabilitation Psychology is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles in furtherance of the mission of Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and to advance the science and practice of rehabilitation psychology. Rehabilitation psychologists consider the entire network of biological, psychological, social, environmental, and political factors that affect the functioning of persons with disabilities or chronic illness. Given the breadth of rehabilitation psychology, the journal"s scope is broadly defined.
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