ABSTRACT

Poverty is one of four factors which negatively affect the development. This chapter analyses how many of the difficulties experienced by people with learning disabilities are the product of social arrangements. The usefulness of role theory is illustrated by the way it describes the effect on men of becoming unemployed (they lose a major role in their life) or of a woman becoming a mother (she gains a new role and a new identity). The chapter presents a few examples for comment, because it is in the nature of social work that most service users experience these issues intensively as children in care, parents of children in care, adults with learning disability, older people, and so on. It moves on from issues about personal identity and self-description to a broader look at how the development of people with learning disabilities is fundamentally affected by social factors and attitudes in health, education, social presence, and finance.