McCusker, P.; Gillespie, L.; Davidson, G.; Vicary, S.; Stone, K. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Social Work: Evidence for Impact? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2023, 20, 6927.
McCusker, P.; Gillespie, L.; Davidson, G.; Vicary, S.; Stone, K. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Social Work: Evidence for Impact? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 6927.
McCusker, P.; Gillespie, L.; Davidson, G.; Vicary, S.; Stone, K. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Social Work: Evidence for Impact? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2023, 20, 6927.
McCusker, P.; Gillespie, L.; Davidson, G.; Vicary, S.; Stone, K. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Social Work: Evidence for Impact? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 6927.
Abstract
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter CRPD) has provided a radical imperative for the reform of mental health and capacity legislation around the world. The interpretation of the CRPD has been controversial, ranging from complete abolition of detention, forcible treatment and substitute decision making, to acceptance that elements of these measures need to be retained but based on non-discriminatory criteria, additional safe-guards and a comprehensive shift towards supported decision-making. While the potential ef-fects of the CRPD on mental health social work and social work generally are considerable given their shared commitment towards social justice, to date there has been no review of research evi-dence exploring their relationship. In addressing this knowledge gap, this study held a prelimi-nary discussion with practitioners and academics at the European Association of Social Work Mental Health Special Interest Group in Amsterdam 2022, followed by a scoping literature re-view on the question: What impact, if any, has the CRPD had on social work practice? The review produced four main findings: impact on legislation; positive impact on practice; limited impact on practice; and impact on social work education and research. In sum, while there were some positive indications of social work and mental health social work practice being influenced by the CRPD, these were scant. Barriers to change included tendencies among some social workers to practise substitute decision-making, in part related to resourcing and policy contexts, and under-standings of disability aligned to individualised/medical rather than social perspectives. The results indicate that legal reform on its own is insufficient to impact social work practice, and that realising the potential of the CRPD will necessitate good quality training, as well as improv-ing social workers’ knowledge of the human rights of people with mental impairment.
Keywords
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD / CRPD); Social Work Practice; Mental Health Social Work Practice; Mental Health and Capacity Law reform; Human Rights; Supported Decision-Making; Social Model of Disability
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychiatry and Mental Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
