Social Work Practice in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Kevin P. Stoddart

ISBN 10: 177112640X / ISBN 13: 9781771126403

Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, CA, 2025

About this Item

In Canada, social work-both the profession and the academic discipline-has given inadequate attention to individuals living with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is true regardless of whether the social work role is in a clinical capacity, community-based programs, academic research and educational endeavours, or an advocacy role or supporting self-advocacy for basic needs and rights to services and supports. Many people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their supporters, value community involvement and integration, quality of life, and access to a wide range of services, so it is likely that social workers will encounter these clients in their careers. Consequently, the onus is on the social work profession to attend more fully and carefully to preparing students, practitioners, and researchers.This peer-reviewed volume provides a range of perspectives, practices, and ideas relative to social work's engagements with individuals living with autism, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities. Contributors include social work practitioners, academic and community-based researchers, educators, activists, and self-advocates. Reflecting different ways of theorizing, speaking about, and working with people with autism, intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, it explores both tensions and possibilities for social work practice, research, education, advocacy, and policy development that better meet their needs and desires for their lives.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781771126403

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Social Work Practice in Autism and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, CA
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 177112640X
• ISBN 13: 9781771126403
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 15.24W x 1.91H x 22.86D centimeters 15.24 centimeters width by 1.91 centimeters height by 22.86 centimeters depth

About this title

Synopsis

In Canada, social work—both the profession and the academic discipline—has given inadequate attention to individuals living with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is true regardless of whether the social work role is in a clinical capacity, community-based programs, academic research and educational endeavours, or an advocacy role or supporting self-advocacy for basic needs and rights to services and supports. Many people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their supporters, value community involvement and integration, quality of life, and access to a wide range of services, so it is likely that social workers will encounter these clients in their careers. Consequently, the onus is on the social work profession to attend more fully and carefully to preparing students, practitioners, and researchers.

This peer-reviewed volume provides a range of perspectives, practices, and ideas relative to social work’s engagements with individuals living with autism, intellectual disabilities, and developmental disabilities. Contributors include social work practitioners, academic and community-based researchers, educators, activists, and self-advocates. Reflecting different ways of theorizing, speaking about, and working with people with autism, intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, it explores both tensions and possibilities for social work practice, research, education, advocacy, and policy development that better meet their needs and desires for their lives.

About the Authors

Kevin Stoddart, PhD, is founding director of The Redpath Centre and an adjunct professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. Since the early 1990s, his primary clinical interest has been supporting children, youth, and adults diagnosed with autism and Asperger Syndrome and the co-existing social and mental health problems that affect them. He continues to be an active clinician at The Redpath Centre in Toronto.

Ann Fudge Schormans, PhD, is a professor emeritus in the School of Social Work, McMaster University. Her practice history with people labelled/with intellectual disabilities in the Community Living and Child Welfare sectors combines with ongoing community-based work to inform her teaching, scholarship, and research. She draws on critical disability studies and employs (and explores the potential and challenges of) inclusive, co-researcher methodologies and knowledge production, with arts-based methods.