Collaborations between young people living with bodily impairments and their multiprofessional teams: The relational dynamics of participation and power

Abstract

This paper explores how more or less relationally oriented forms of professional practices could be expressed in collaborations between young people living with bodily impairments and their multiprofessional teams. The analysis was based on life‐mode interviews with young people (16–20 years), individual and focus group interviews with the professionals and participant observation in team meetings. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on participation and the workings of power, different discourses, subject positions and participatory strategies were recognised and related to the participation of the young people. Finally, the relevance of the findings for practice is reflected on in a participation rights perspective.

Young Adults with Disabilities and their Transitions to Adult Life and Services: A Sociocultural Analysis of Parents’ Perspectives on their Involvement

“…Because adults tend to occupy positions of greater power and social standing than younger persons (James 2009), this form of involvement is possible. Correspondingly, when exploring youth participatory strategies in our previous article, we found young adults actively drawing on their parents' 'adult authority' to make their voices better heard vis-à-vis service providers (Skagestad, Østensjø & Ulvik 2021).…”

“…These would reflect broader patterns of shared meaning that were relevant to the aims of the study, organized around a central concept. The development of the themes was also informed by the interviews previously conducted with the parents' young adult children, as well as observations of meetings in some of these children's support teams (see Skagestad, Østensjø & Ulvik 2021). In one way or another, the initial themes generated involved parents' understandings of their children's situation, requirements, preferences, or experiences.…”