The Lived Experience of Interdependence: Support Worker Relationships and Implications for Wider Rehabilitation

Abstract

Engaging in a meaningful life where one can exercise autonomy has been proposed as a key aim of rehabilitation. Influenced by a neoliberal worldview, this has traditionally been characterised by a pursuit towards individual functional independence in which one completes tasks and activities unassisted. However for many persons, individual functional independence may not be a realistic, prioritised or beneficial goal. Many individuals must learn to work with support workers to exercise choice and control. Such relationships extend beyond a transactional nature and involve many subtle characteristics. In this article, I draw on my lived experience of partnering with support workers to illustrate the complexity of such relationships and how they can enable interdependence to serve as a vehicle to self-determination. I finish with some ideas about what rehabilitation can do to recognise the important role human connections play in facilitating interdependence. Understanding the nature of these relationships is necessary to provide services which value interdependence, supporting people to pursue a meaningful life following impairment.